Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Travelers Reunited and the NY Photo Festival


“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” 

– Miriam Beard

See photo albums below: 

Cait, Ro and Dunc Visit Vancouver


New York Photo Festival


After I returned from California, I decided to attend the New York Photo Festival. I was not in any kind of financial condition to go, but decided that I really couldn't afford not to go either. There were opportunities for me to show my work to photo editors and gallerists during the festival so I decided to create a book filled with my favourite images from '07 and '08. This proved to be a much more time consuming task than I bargained for but definitely a rewarding one in the end. See a digital version here.

During this time, Cait paid me a visit on her way home to New York from New Zealand. We had met in Chiang Mai, Thailand on a jungle trek. She was traveling with her friend Ada. The three of us went on to Pai together for a week of yoga, Reiki, banana pancakes, swimming, bon fires, gypsy bars, meditation, wheat grass juice and goodness.  We met up again in Bangkok later and crossed the border into Cambodia together, which you can read more about here:


We went our separate ways after Cambodia. Cait headed south of Bangkok to a meditation retreat before starting a teaching gig in Thailand and I went on to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. We kept in touch over the next several months and come October ('08), we found ourselves both in New Zealand where we got to explore a little more of the world together again.

Since both of us were on a tight budget, as per usual, we spent most of the time walking around Vancouver: Yaletown, Gastown, Commercial Drive, Kitsilano and English Bay. This gave us oodles of time to catch up on all the happenings since our last goodbye at the Auckland airport. When I had to work on my photo book we just planted ourselves in a coffee shop for the afternoon.

A couple of weeks later (May '09), Rosie and Duncan also paid me a visit! I met them exactly a year before in the Perhentians, Malaysia. We shared a cab to Kota Bharu after getting off a flight from Kuala Lumpur. We spent a fantastic few days together on Besar, the bigger island of the Perhentians. We later met up again in July in Kuta, Bali. They had left England to go on a year long round the world trip and lucky for me, they not only included Vancouver on their North American itinerary, but also NY, where I got to meet with them again later that month.


The New York Photo Festival took place in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), Brooklyn, also known as the new photo district of New York. This was another time when I felt I was a part of something really big happening in the photography industry. I like that feeling.

I took in lectures and exhibitions from many photographers but the one I remember and was inspired by the most was Tim Hetherington. His exhibition called 'Sleeping Soldiers' used powerful audio, video and still images, extremely effective in bringing you to the steep hillsides of Afghanistan and the experience and emotion of war. It is photographers like Tim Hetherington and James Nachtwey that I hold in  such high regard, who  capture and share with us a reality that most would rather pretend didn't exist.


The hot topic at the festival was photography complimented by other forms of media. More and more photojournalists are incorporating video and especially audio into their repertoires, rendering their stories much more effective. Brian Storm from Media Storm suggested I do the same. His site features some of the most memorable photo essays I've seen in a long time. Jonathan Torgovnik's 'Intended Consequences' documents Tutsi women who had been raped by members of the Hutu militia, many of them contracting HIV as well as becoming pregnant, during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. View his multimedia presentation here, and you will see what I mean by 'effective'.


There were many events, lectures and moments worth noting but I will stop there, otherwise I might never finish this extremely delayed blog installment!













In the evenings I met up with Rosie and Duncan again who were staying only 3 blocks from my hostel before they departed back to England. Cait and I managed to squeeze in meeting in the East Village, Chinatown and Little Italy as well as having tapas with my favourite NY couple, Carolina and Rodrigo (from Brazil). We met on a boat in Halong Bay, Vietnam and had kept in touch ever since. Read more on our  Hanoi expedition here.



I returned from New York very glad that I had gone and feeling hopeful for the future of my career. I had just participated in a group exhibition at Exposure Gallery in Vancouver called 'Streets' and was about to exhibit in another called, 'Salon'. At the same time that 'Salon' was going on, my images went up at Ronda Shott Photography for the Camrose (AB) Artwalk (thanks to my Mom). I had less than 2 weeks left to make the final preparations for 'In Transit', which was to take place in Auckland, NZ with Sam Bech and Karen Williamson on June 6th, 2009. Needless to say, I was a very busy girl...which is hard to complain about when you are doing something you love so much!


“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Friday, September 11, 2009

Home for Awhile...and Cali Road Trip!

 
 

'No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until one comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.'

 - Lin Yutang

See photo albums below:

Vancouver and Edmonton

Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach and L.A.

California Coast and San Francisco

Home was a seriously mixed bag of feelings. I gave myself 5 weeks to see everyone and get all my paperwork (work visa) in order before I was due back to NZ mid December ('08). I was really excited to see everyone but also had a dreaded feeling of going home. It guess it was the void of adventure that I wasn't so keen on but reveled in the comfort of arriving in a familiar airport, where you know the language and the best way to transport yourself from point A to B.  

I stopped in Vancouver briefly to say hi to the kitties and pick up some winter clothes and went off to Edmonton the next day. Visiting friends and family in Alberta was of course really great. My mom had a table at the Festival of Trees in Camrose to sell all her knitting wares so I joined her to sell some of my prints from NY, Hawaii and SE Asia...we had 3 full days of catching up and mother daughter bonding, which made it a more than worthwhile endeavour.

I stopped by the island (Victoria) to see old friends: Stacey and Aron as well as Kelli. It was an awesome visit (as always) before going back to Vancouver to meet up with Marj. She came up from San Francisco for a week of visiting with myself and her friend Mirena. We caught up on all the happenings of the last 4 months since we said goodbye in Bali and of course had heaps of fun, as per usual.  



After spending such a great week with Marj in my home city and having some time to take a step back to look at the big picture. I got to thinking if going back to NZ was such a great idea. The pay is not overly high in NZ, the currency is quite weak and I didn't have a lot of luck finding work while I was already there for 3 months. I wanted to get ahead in my photography and the business of it all and could do that easier with a solid home base within my own country (definitely less red tape). I loved NZ but it is so far away from the mecca of photography, namely New York. So I cancelled my flight for the time being and decided to stay put in Canada, my home and native land...true, PATRIOT loooooove... 

This lead me back to my Dad's farm in Saskatchewan to see Tronn, my brother, and my Dad, then back to Edmonton for further visiting over Christmas. It was a good time for me to be home and I knew that I made the right decision to stay put.



In January ('09), I received an invitation from The Depot Artspace in Auckland, NZ, inviting me to exhibit with 2 other female photographers during the Auckland Photo Festival in June. I didn't really have to think about what my answer would be so I emailed back with a resounding YES! 

The next few weeks were spent in front of my laptop, continuing to market myself, preparing for the exhibition, looking for jobs and catching up on editing photos and various projects I had been working on until one night....I had the most horrible dream. I was in a bathroom tied up and couldn't move at all. I was trying to say something and a lady came in with my laptop and raised it high above her head and aimed the corner directly at my forehead before starting to bludgeon me until my entire frontal lobe became a gaping hole. Blood and brains were everywhere and when I tried to talk, all that came out was garble and drool. I woke up and laid there for 2 hours, completely freaked out.
  
The next morning I woke up feeling spent from that nightmare. I had received another email from Marj regarding coming to L.A. to meet Dan (we had met him in Bali, he is originally from Germany, and he was coming over from Australia). I had told her that I couldn't really justify a trip having no income and just getting back from the other side of the world but I took the dream as a cue that maybe I needed a mental health break (or rather a break from being glued to my laptop day and night), so I told her I would be there.

The bus driver had to shake me awake upon arrival at Seattle airport. I walked into the airport sporting an imprint of the texture of my camera bag on my cheek and wiping drool from my chin....classy! 

I had some time to kill so I went and got lunch. Eating isn't what it used to be. My sensitivity to alcohol had seriously progressed to a point of not being able to eat anything that had even the smallest amount in it (or I could count on being ill for 4 to 10 days). I had to learn the hard way that some extracts, like vanilla, actually contained pure alcohol. Really bad news for someone who loves her cookies with coffee – no more, unless someone could tell me exactly what was in it. Booooooo!

I landed in Long Beach where my surf sister Marj was waiting for me! She pulled up and we headed off to her sister's. We had a really good dinner and visit with her sister Beth and her husband John. A very warm and welcoming couple, but I would expect nothing less from someone related to Marj.  


Most of the next morning was spent catching up and hanging out. Dan had called so we headed in to L.A. to pick him up. He was in Pasadena couch surfing (www.couchsurfing.com). He hadn't changed a bit...besides his sun bleached hair from living in Perth, Australia the last few months. The three of us went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and explored. I got faux stabbed by Jason from Friday the 13th and had a small heart attack. Later, we went bowling at Lucky Strike before calling it a night.

 



Marj and I headed off to Laguna Beach the next day. I loved driving down there by the ocean through all the cute little surf towns. We walked around to different galleries and had a super chill afternoon. When the light got good, we cruised as fast as we could to beat the sunset at Huntington Beach.  The next hour was spent photographing the pier, surfers and sea birds. A dreamy golden hour.




A surfer told us about the Tuesday night market in town where we ended up running into a t-shirt vendor named Allen Scott. One of his t-shirts had 'Cardone' on them. I asked if he knew Ryan Cardone and it turned out that he used to design t-shirts with him for a skateboarding line they did together. Small world. I was meeting Ryan in a couple days to talk about putting my surf photography on his stock site (www.tidalstock.com). I loved every minute of that day. Sun, surf, art, coffee and one of my best friends in the world:)

The next morning, we went back to L.A., picked up Dan and went on a tour of Warner Bros. Studio. We got to see the set of E.R., Cold Case, The Ghost Whisperer, Friends, Gilmore Girls etc. It was pretty cool, although I don't think I have seen even one episode of any of the aforementioned, save for Friends! We really wanted to see Ellen but she was taping during the golden hour. We did see where she parks her Porsche though. We didn't see any stars but figured they were all hiding behind bushes and buildings and too intimidated to approach US. Ha ha ha. Our tour guide thought the story of the 3 of us meeting in Bali would make a good movie. When we were on the ER Emergency Entrance set – Marj had Dan pick me up and pretend he was running me in. Afterward he said my bones were REALLY heavy. Hmmmm? Lol! 
Other Danisms:

'Ooooooooh!' He just says this a lot...when he gets excited. 
'Look there's a hobo!' When seeing a homeless person in L.A.
'Where's the pee-pee box?' I think he picked this one up in Australia?!



We also had a lot of fun in the Friends room where all the paraphernalia from the set was. We got our picture taken in front of a green screen where Dan was pushing me and Marj was trying to stop him in front of the train from Harry Potter. So it went nicely with the photo of Dan carrying me into emergency after his attempt to kill me.
 


We headed to Venice Beach afterward to meet my friend Nell. She had recently moved back to California from Vancouver where she was a yoga instructor and back to her old job as a lifeguard while studying yoga therapy. We walked Venice Beach down to Santa Monica Pier where we did a lot of swinging (on swings!) and then to the pier. Nell took us to Mao's for dinner – a popular haunt with the locals. DAYUM it was good!
 


After we left, we were all shivering walking to the car. Dan said 'think warm thoughts' but I thought he said 'think warm farts'. We all laughed and thought it was a creative, albeit smelly, way for one to warm up!


 
We drove through Rodeo Drive and looked at some of the houses in Beverly Hills, then off to Sunset Boulevard. Whisky a Go Go wasn't at all what I expected. I kept trying to picture Jim Morrison on stage and it just wasn't working. There was a really good band playing though who sounded like a cross between Tool and Metallica (Scarlet Paradigm). We dropped Dan off and said our goodbyes. Oh where in the world will we see him next? 

The next day, we met Ryan Cardone just outside of L.A. He is a really great guy. We had a 2 hour meeting and mostly talked about surfing and photography. Loved it and am very excited to contribute his site (www.tidalstock.com). 


We got to Pismo Beach just in time for sunset but the sun disappeared behind the clouds literally as soon as we got our cameras out. The same thing happened at Venice Beach. It forces me to be more creative, but as most of you can probably surmise by now - I like my solar flares:) I love photographing with Marj. She does her thing and I do mine. I feel so good after a sunset photo session. I suppose it could be likened to taking a hit of your favourite drug.  I am addicted!

We drove into the college, coastal town of San Luis Obispo and checked into our hostel - $25 each a night? Yeeks! A far cry from Asia prices! We went to the farmer's market. It was SO All American. I felt like I was in a football movie. We went to an organic restaurant and had some really good eats before meeting Marj's friend at a little coffee shop where we chatted about all of our travels, dreams and future plans. Marj convinced us to continue the evening at a pub. It's a college town so I would imagine everyone was in their early to mid twenties...one is reminded of how old they really are when surrounded by a crowd that looks SO young! A guy from Mexico City came over and asked if we were from Germany? Hmmm. Perhaps Dan rubbed off on us a little?
 



The next morning we hit the road again, stopping in Cambria for coffee and loitering, San Simeon to see the elephant seals, the coastline to watch a storm linger above the Pacific and Monterey for a little taste of its charm.

We finally got to San Francisco just in time to make it to the Valentine's Day Bitter Ball Cruise! Marj got us tix for my birthday and we danced the night away in the San Francisco harbour with pretty much ALL gay men. It was fantastic! 





We spent the next few days cruising around San Fran. I was sick from something that I ate that must have had some kind of something in it but I tried to ignore it as best as possible and enjoy it all.
We met up with Goosh my last night there and had dinner together. I hadn't seen him since he and Suzanne got married and left Vancouver. We had a superb eve of catching up and talking about...what else? Photography!
 


'The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.'


 - St. Augustine

Saturday, June 20, 2009

New Zealand Part II



NEW ZEALAND PART II

New Zealand

More of the Shaky Isles!

Springtime in NZ



I followed the signs in the Auckland airport to the ‘All Departures’ gate to catch my flight to Christchurch. I was asked to fill out a Departures card....’For a domestic flight?’ I asked. Oh no. There is another terminal for domestic departures and it was either a 15 minute wait for the shuttle or a 15 minute walk. I was already running late....so I ran. I arrived just in time to hear the announcement that my flight was delayed. What a surprise!

An hour and a half later, I landed in Christchurch. I could take a shuttle for $20, a taxi for $40 or a public bus for $7. All three of these options seemed ridiculously expensive after SE Asia of course, so I opted for the bus.

I got to the Bus Exchange where I was to call Anthony, my very first couch surfing host (couchsurfing.com) but could I find a payphone anywhere? No. And when I finally did, would it take coins? Nuh uh. So I had to use my credit card again after already spending $10 in Auckland just to call Tash for 5 minutes and was freezing with just my bunny hug, light pants and sandals! Why didn't I wear jeans on the plane or buy REAL shoes before I left? I guess I had forgotten what cold felt like after 6 months of heat in SE Asia.

While I sat waiting for Anthony, I noticed a seagull stroll by me. This seagull looked...PRISTINE. Its feathers were so white and it’s beak so red. After being exposed to so many animals that were mangy, diseased and unkempt in Asia, this seagull looked like it belonged to the royal family.

I stayed up chatting with Anthony and his roommate, Michelle, until I finally collapsed into bed at 1 AM. The entire journey from Denpasar ended up lasting 20 hours...as opposed to the original duration of 9 hours.

The next day, Anthony took me to Sumner Beach! A quaint little town by the ocean. We had a fabulous lunch there – eggs Benedict, apricot coconut crisp and espressos! I don't have any photos of this leg of my journey because my camera equipment was locked up in my baggage....which was lost somewhere between Australia and NZ (of course).

Michelle, Anthony and I went for breakfast the next morning before Michelle drove me to the airport. I hope that someday I will be able to return the hospitality to them.

When they announced that my flight to Rotorua was delayed, I actually laughed out loud after all that had already happened. I had specified a window seat on the flight to Rotorua, and had another chuckle when I realized my 'window seat' had no actual window!

I can't explain what a comfort it is knowing that someone you love is waiting for you at your destination. I had landed by plane, arrived by bus, tuk-tuk, sangthaw, boat etc. in so many places not knowing what to expect, where to go or who to trust completely alone. Although it's exciting and adventurous, it makes you appreciate a friendly face so much more. Knowing Tash was waiting for me at the airport when I arrived had me smiling the whole plane ride!

We had met and became fast friends way back in 1995 in Camrose, Alberta. The last time we had seen each other was in Edmonton about 4 years prior but had always stayed close through letters, email and telephone calls. At that time, her and her husband, Jono, had both graduated from Rhodes in South Africa and were immigrating to New Zealand with plans to later move to Australia. And here they were, livin' it! New Zealand provides a pretty beautiful life for those who take advantage of it, and they are a prime example of that.

The car ride from Rotorua was filled with stories, laughter and making up for all our lost time. We got to Whakatane (pronounced 'fuckatawny'...my mom had fun with that one ) and met Jono for a coffee at 'The Bean', where they roast their coffee beans in-house - I was in love with Whakatane already!

Their home was exactly as I had envisioned..cozy, comfortable and full of character. I spent the next 3 weeks there looking for work, editing photos, visiting and EATING! It wasn't until my clothes from Canada arrived and I tried to put on my favourite jeans that I realized just how MUCH I had been eating. I blame Tash. Her cooking was out of this world, gourmet, scrumptious and irrefutably deee-lish!

One weekend when Jono was away, Tash and I watched all of the Harry Potter movies back to back while eating curry, cookies, popcorn and drinking chai all wrapped up in arm warmers, housecoats and slippers. Divine!

I then spent a couple of weeks in Tauranga, which is also situated in the Bay of Plenty. The homeowner, Lisa, owned a pet sitting co. as well as a dog kennel so it was an absolute dreamy housesit for me! I took care of about 6 dogs for 2 weeks as well as Pickle, the cat. I was walking for about 3 hours every day so each of them could get a good jaunt in. It was so nice to have them around and they kept me reallllly busy!

At the end of it, Tash and Jono came to Tauranga to pick me up and we went to Mt. Maunganui. Tash and I walked up the mountain and quite typically, Jono ran! The summit offers a view of the vast ocean scape, paragliders, grazing sheep and surrounding city.

Kate and Graham Currie, Tash and Jono's friends from Hamilton came to visit that weekend in Whakatane. When they arrived, I was on my 'bird walk' – an amazing hike right beside their place – lots of stairs and elevated views. A great workout for someone who spends most of their time in front of a laptop.

We had a serious spread that night with much laughter and many stories of Jono and Graham's homeland, South Africa, as well as little tidbits about the Maori culture from Kate, the only Kiwi of the bunch.

Kate, Tash and I had a lovely morning drinking tea over girl chat and then got dressed and went to the carnival across the street. Tash and I giggled and screamed like little girls on the Rock and Roll! We then went to Ohope Beach for coffee and lunch and a walk at Otiwarari Bay. The beach was beautiful – so many seashells and so smooth. I was madly in love with life in New Zealand.


The next morning, we had another bbq but this time with French toast! We ate in their cute little backyard complete with garden, lots of flowers and trees. Jono would surprise Tash with things like making a flower bed or converting the garden path from straight to curvy.


I returned to Tauranga for another housesit taking care of 2 dogs and 3 cats. Pam worked with Lisa (my last housesit) and her parents were going 'across the ditch' to Australia. During this time I was going up to Auckland trying to find a company to sponsor me so I could stay in NZ without having to return home to obtain a work visa. This proved much harder than I had hoped.

By this time, Cait had arrived in NZ! I had met her in Thailand with Ada at the beginning of my trip and we had gone on to travel to Cambodia together. She had just spent 4 months in Thailand teaching English and we found a place in St. Helier's Bay, Auckland with 5 awesome roomies. I stayed with her when I was there and we got to catch up on all our travel adventures since we last saw one another.

My last house sit was in Muriwai Beach with 2 dogs, Neo and Pixie and Mog, the cat. I had no idea what a dramatically stunning place this was going to be. When I went down to the beach for the first time with the dogs, I was overtaken by the 50km of black sand beach, tumultuous waves and stormy nuanced sky.

The dogs and I went to the beach everyday to frolic in the surf and run up and down the beach...ok that was more them than me, but I had fun watching!


Cait came up to visit and we had a lovely day of eating ice cream, hanging with the dogs, checking out the Gannet colony and later making dinner and watching a quirky movie.

I came back down to Whakatane just in time for Halloween! Apparently Kiwis aren't big on dressing up for Halloween, so Tash was determined to show her friends what a great time they were missing out on. We decorated the entire house and Tash baked up a storm of Halloween goodies.

There was a vampire, a ghost, a smurf, a mummy, pirates, a Barbie, the Joker, hippies, a fly, an oyster catcher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oystercatcher) and the cat in the hat!

There was limbo, there was dancing, there was eating and drinking - a great party made by the spectacular people who attended and hosted the event.

And then it came....the 3 months in NZ that I had to secure a work visa and a job were up. If I had any hope of working in NZ, I was to return to Canada to apply for and obtain the visa. I returned home November, 2009, 9 months after I had set out to SE Asia, hoping only to stay for 5 weeks....at least that was the plan.