#52weeksofWE - A Windsor - Essex 52 Week Photo Challenge

Consider the following a little bit of advertising for yet another new venture of mine. While I would wait to do this, I want to start "recruiting" for this group before the holidays take over and the new year begins.

 Autumn Stairs by Me

Just look through some of the Flickr groups out there on Windsor – Essex photography, and the beauty and vibrancy of this place – in a place not typically described as “beautiful” – is highlighted by professional and amateur photographers alike. Consider this an invitation in celebrating the life of Windsor – Essex, in weekly intervals… You may have heard of these photography ‘challenges.’ I would not attempt to subject you to a 365 day photographic slog through Windsor – Essex, but I figure that the 52 week challenge would be manageable for most.

This is my vision. I will create a group and you photographers out there will be encouraged to post one picture per week. Each week would have a theme, which would be introduced every Sunday or Monday, for example. I do not plan on being tyrannical and would accept a picture even if it was off-theme, but I figure the theme thing would be fun. They would of course be broad, and open to interpretation.

I encourage you to give me feedback about the running of the group, possible themes, and any other ideas that may come to you as the group evolves (if that is the right word). Rest assured, I will be the only member if needs be, but I hope this idea catches on and we can all get into this 52 week challenge.

I encourage you to use the tag #52weeksofWE on the photos you submit.

If you are interested, or know someone who is, pass the word along. For those who are not Flickr fans, I also run the following sites and would be more than happy to feature the 52 week challenge on any and all of these social media platforms with everybody’s permission. You can find the links below this message.

Please email me at: essex.masque@gmail.com if you have any questions. I will also start up an email list to communicate the weekly theme if you prefer that as well. I intend to make the group active on January 5th, 2015.

Here is the website for the actual group: https://www.flickr.com/groups/52weeksofwe/

Happy shooting, and I look forward to 2015.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Essex.Masque

Blog: http://wemasque.blogspot.ca

Twitter: @EssexMasque

P.S. I also have another Flickr group called, Pictures with a Story (https://www.flickr.com/groups/essexmasque/). Feel free to check it out and contribute if you are in the habit of attaching a story to your pictures, which I would encourage everyone to do.

One Pursuit Building on Another - Hero vs The Guardian

 Not Quite Solitary by Me

Any time I consider my passion of writing and compare it to other artistic pursuits, I think of one person, Jet Li. Maybe not the usual association, but hey, aren’t we all full of strange comparisons? The reason why I associate Jet Li (Hong Kong martial arts actor, starring in such movies as Romeo Must Die, Black Mask, Fearless, etc) is mainly because of his role in the movie, Hero. If you have ever seen this work of beautiful cinematography and martial arts skill, you may understand why. The movements of the warriors are often compared with fine arts, like calligraphy and musical performance. These comparisons are made explicit as we see these stylized battles taking place in the context of the artistic comparison. Characters fight off a storm of arrows at a school, where students and masters alike stoically create calligraphic characters amid the descent of the few lethal missiles that breach the defenses. Two warriors face off in a battle of will, while an older, blind man plays a “guqin” (Chinese stringed instrument), the two performances given almost equal weight in their presentation.

 Broken Sword's sword character from Hero
(Picture taken from Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Historical Writing blog)

To me this is striking in that it encourages the idea that one form of art builds on another, while building on itself. At a point in my life where things slowed down and my writing was suffering from lack of motivation and self-pity, I took up another pursuit. Inspired both by my father’s passion for woodworking, as well as his access to the tools of the trade, I started wood carving. I do not claim any proficiency, but sitting out in his garage with either an ounce or three of Forty Creek or a coffee beside me, to carve, sand, and stain a single piece of wood, to mold its character into Samurai Jack and the gas mask figure from Pink Floyd’s the Wall, was a wonderful experience of hands-on creativity. Of course it was frustrating at times (ie. when pieces of Jack’s sword kept on chipping off), but it was incredibly rewarding. Whenever I get the time again, I will pick up the tools - currently located under a couch in my living room - and take it up again. 

What was even more rewarding for me though, was when I sat down to write fiction again. For some reason that pen felt like a carving knife in my hand, the paper the same as the block of wood whose character would not let me do certain things (against the grain), while encouraging others (with the grain). Though still requiring lots of editing (sanding, staining), the words started to flow a little more easily. I find I still go back to that feeling of carving when I write now, six years later, and my fingers seem to remember what it was like as I draw mechanical pencil lead over paper, or strike keys on a laptop.

Now, due to the many demands on my time and my efforts to still live a “slow” lifestyle, thoughts of creativity and its impact on my writing mainly come out through photography. When I was back in my “Introduction to Novel Writing” course in my English degree (see my blog post from November 18, 2014), I learned about showing through poetic detail, not telling; the difference between writing the guy looked “rich,” and describing a platinum cigar case and manicured nails, for example. As I have taken up (amateur) photography, I have noticed this same pairing and building on both artistic pursuits, and this has largely been represented by the celebration of the magic behind the mundane which has been the leitmotif, or theme, of my recent work. 

 Alpine Bicycle by Me

What photography has done for me is to slow down and notice those poetic details that Thomas King told me about, to alter my perspective to notice a new detail on a path that I have walked or driven a thousand times before. This shift of the way I experience things, or the way my characters experience things, has come out in my writing and writing process, just as the feeling of carving knife in hand wood grain under the blade became part of my writing process six years ago. What is my character seeing, now he is standing here instead of there? How is she going to react now that this has happened, instead of that? Flip this on its head, and I might think while I am taking a photograph, what would someone else notice about this angle? They build on each other.



Part of the inspiration for putting these thoughts down is because of an article that was just released today by The Guardian, titled "The 6.5m canyon" with the subheading in its Facebook form, "Photography is not an art. It is a technology." I suggest you read it yourself and formulate your own opinion. I, however, will go out on a limb and say that I agree with the rather heated condemnation (really, what other sort of reaction would we expect from a comment thread on the internet?) of the author’s position. The argument, within the context of the most expensive photograph ever being sold, purports that with the advent of digital technology and its accessibility to the general masses, snapping a pretty picture is no longer an art. Some of the comments call into question this idea of technology and art, a debate that I am sure will go on for as long as humanity does, and compare the camera technology to the technology of a pencil. Essentially, there is no difference. A piece of technology – whether it is a pencil, guqin, carving knife, computer, or camera – is merely a means of artistic pursuit. I am inclined to agree with this argument, as the argument in the article would seem to suggest that accessibility to such things as English classes, books, e-readers, education, pencils / pens, word processors, and computers have turned writing into a technology.



This brings to mind another opportunity to learn from a celebrated Canadian author. I went to a reading by Margaret Atwood in Windsor, ON, when “The Year of the Flood” came out. A number of people lined up for questions. One such person, a student in the local English Program who I am heavily paraphrasing, said, “Because writing is now so prolific there is no such thing as an original work.” I puked a little in my mouth after this (I had a similar reaction during my English Masters when a student put up his hand and wondered aloud why people should bother reading / writing when you can just turn everything into a movie), but figured Atwood would be more than capable to handle this statement. After lamenting an English program that would entertain this notion, she said that if you give (and again I am paraphrasing from years ago) more than one person a subject and tell them to write about it, each one of the works will be unique to its author. Yes, the subject may remain the same but the choice of language, the poetic detail, will change.



In the Guardian article, the author says that if you point a camera at some natural phenomenon you are adding nothing to it, citing the many photographs of Antelope Canyon, Arizona, as proof of this. Yes, I agree that the photograph may not in fact be worth 6.5 million dollars, more so than half the other shots I see on a daily basis in the midst of my Flickr addiction, but that is not the argument I am making. If you tell more than one person to capture Antelope Canyon, or indeed anything else, you are going to get a unique take on it despite the technology in hand. It may not particularly be good, and yes some may have more of a developed craft than the next, but it is all part of the artistic process. 

Bird's Eye View by Me

And that is what I think the Guardian article does not take into account, and why I started off this post talking about how one artistic pursuit builds on the other, at the same time building upon itself. It is a way of seeing, of thinking, of being intimate with the character of the subject, noticing and communicating its poetic detail with the use of technology associated with the pursuit we choose to adopt and develop. That is why different artistic mediums can build upon one another, and why art is not limited to the tools that communicate it.
Thoughts, feelings, opinions?  Have a story to share? Contact me through the blog, make a comment on the post, or do so through my other social media presences:
Twitter: @Essex.Masque
Facebook: Essex.Masque 
Goodreads: Essex Masque: An Anecdotal Journey through Windsor - Essex

Update! The Guardian's photography critic, Sean O'Hagan has responded to the "photography is not art" argument of yesterday's article, featured above. Follow the link below:

"Photography is art and always will be"

Photography with a side of text

https://www.flickr.com/groups/essexmasque/


My original idea was to hunt down all the photographers in Windsor / Essex contributing to Flickr who were also providing some sort of written context of the shot, and then jam them all (with their permission of course) into a Flickr group. There are a few of course, and I also thought I could encourage those who were not doing it to start. This is a bit harder, but still possible.

Of course the audience size is a huge challenge, and really you need some momentum to get people to join anyway. Would you rather join a group that had three members, or three hundred?
This seemed a bit silly after a little while. I started "Pictures with a Story" in January of 2014 and was lucky enough to get a great shot of the huge stone cross on Windsor's riverside as the foreground, and the Ambassador Bridge as a background, with a great story of being harrassed about taking pictures of the bridge that accompanied it. I got this, but little else. The low numbers and global feel of Flickr inspired me to look further afield, digitally speaking, for those who like to write about the work that they do.
Since those humble beginnings I continue to see humble numbers and contributions, but am thankful for each of the 151 photographers and storytellers who contribute to the group, and each of the 1300 photographs and stories that have been shared.
There are stories about camera angles and lighting techniques, stories about timers and running across subway platforms to get the self-portrait, stories about African fauna and Canadian flora, stories about work getting in the way of demanding compositions and road trips, stories from South Africa and Morocco and Windsor and Toronto and ... well you get the picture (pun intended).
And people have been incredibly appreciative of the idea behind the group. Not all have thanked me for the invitation and starting up the group, but those who have say that they are never sure whether people are reading their written work, or whether they care. The opportunity to take a little more time to look at a photograph, to learn more about it, and to at least get a brief, paragraph experience of a "stranger's" life may only be appreciated by a small minority of Flickr users - as compared to a majority of flashing, moving awards, and favourite / view hoarding - it is nice to provide a small niche of storytelling in this vast photograph album.
You can consider this post to be an invitation as well. Feel free to visit the site, or any of my other social media presences where you can share your stories and photographs and whatever else, whether you be Windsorite or any other '-ite' '-an' '-er' you may happen to be.
Twitter: @EssexMasque
Facebook: www.facebook.com/essex.masque
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/146120-the-essex-masque-an-anecdotal-journey-through-windsor---essex

(One of) My Favourite Author(s) just won the Governor General's Award

Though I try to focus on authors from Windsor - Essex on this blog, I really wanted to bring attention to the latest winner of the Governor General's Award. I was not born and raised in Windsor. That happened in Sarnia, ON, but I have also been "raised" all over Southern Ontario (as well as in Korea for one magical year). For a time I lived in Guelph, ON, which is where I ended up taking my Master's Degree in English Literature. The highlight of that time in my life, beyond the hours and hours of twitching eyes and cramping hands, was a novel writing course I took with Thomas King. I couldn't believe my luck as I had already fallen in love with his writing. Being able to learn from him and get feedback on my writing from this master storyteller has made an impression on me that will never disappear.


This is a somewhat roundabout, subjective way of saying, if you have never read anything by Thomas King you should do so now. While I love his non-fiction, if you experience him in any way, read his fiction. "One Good Story That One" (a collection of short stories) and "Green Grass Running Water" would be at the top of my recommendations.

Sadly I have not had the opportunity to read his winning novel yet. I will be as soon as possible.
Here is the link for the CBC article on this year's Governor General's Award:

http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/11/the-2014-governor-generals-literary-award-winners.html

Let me know what you think!

(Amateur) Book Review #3 - Ghost Road and other forgotten stories of Windsor by Marty Gervais

I never expected, the first day I ever stepped foot in Windsor during the summer of ’09 - at the tail end of The Strike - that I would stay. The old advertisements in the vacant shop windows were sun bleached and dust coated. The garbage bins were overflowing, and the parks tangled and overgrown.

Can I spend two years here at the University, let alone stay?

But stay I did. I have lived all over Southern Ontario, as well as overseas, and yet Windsor – Essex is where I have settled and put down roots. Part of that is because Windsor – Essex has something that I appreciate, a sort of understated, humble magic that can be easily overlooked, and yet is just as present below the surface of things.

Marty Gervais captures this in “Ghost Road and other forgotten stories of Windsor,” an excellent collection of stories and photographs that spans our history from the 18^th Century to 1980 and “Beyond.” No matter how accomplished the person, there is a celebration that their intentions were not necessarily to be a famous Baseball Player or Photographer, but rather people in a community who shares their talents and successes with the people who they love. 

Part of the appeal of Windsor – Essex for me is that the magic of our history takes some digging to find, that it isn’t necessarily thrown in our faces. I know this is true, in part, with everywhere I have lived. On a subjective level, however, I believe that it is more characteristic of Windsor – Essex.

Mr. Gervais has done some of the work for us, and I am sure you will thank him for it when you read this book. The true success of this book is what it does for the reader. Namely, it makes you stop and think as you walk down that old familiar road, to look a little more carefully when you are driving past fields in the county, or even as you are going through the stuff packed away in boxes in your basement or attic, and to really think there is history and magic here in the mundane. There are stories in the bricks and mortar of the towns and streets and houses in which we live. It just takes a little work to find them, but it is definitely worth the effort.

Do you have any stories about Windsor – Essex that you want to share, or ones that Mr. Gervais has made you think of after reading Ghost Road?

(Amateur) Book Review #2 - The River: A Memoir of Life in the Border Cities by Paul Vasey

Ready yourself for another amateur review. 

If you are looking for a very linear, objective history of Windsor – Detroit, I still want you to read The River – even though it is neither of these things. Our experience of time is not linear. Whenever I think of that idea it brings to mind something  John Edgar Wideman, author of Philiadelphia Fire, said in an interview I watched in my English Literature days. This is beyond paraphrasing and comes straight from my memory, but the image has always stuck with me. Wideman described the perception of time as being in the middle of a lake, with snapshots and other memories floating around us and bumping into us as we live our lives. I can imagine the same thing in Paul Vasey’s The River. I could just imagine, as I read it, drifting down the river and bumping into his old memories of being a young journalist in Windsor, of getting caught in the calm spots of the islands dotting the waters of Detroit and being surrounded by snapshots of the misfits and “larger than life” personalities that come alive to us through Vasey’s words. This is a people’s history, with a touch of official history, of the richness of Windsor – Essex. Just as you could expect from being surrounded by snapshots of these retired boxers, residents of a lost riverfront village, and “repeat offenders,” the history drifts towards us and then away, then back to us again. Just as they came in and out of Vasey’s life, so do they come into The River’s narrative, leave again, only to return.  Definitely worth the read, especially if you want to experience the often overlooked magic of Windsor – Essex.

 
Give it a read and let me know what you think.