Morgan Detmer, 2014

Joshua Trip pt. 1

April seems like eons ago.

In the middle of a Toronto heatwave, I'm tempted to say summer's waning but hello: it feels the way kids pulling home-made gooey salt water taffy (le tire!) looks. For some personal reasons, I haven't updated this thing in some time, and some of you may not have heard a peep from me in a while. But rest assured, I'm getting my ducks in a row after a weird but pretty OK summer.

Leaving in April for some alone time in Joshua Tree, California, spending 2 weeks at a residency, and returning to some iteration of spring in Toronto left me in a lurch as going back to a familiar place with a new understanding of one's self is wont to do.

Over the past few months, I've taken some time off to parse through the work I made and the things I learned in the desert. Let's be clear: this is not the work I made, though these snaps do depict some of the things I started or finished at the residency. I also burned out trying to single-handedly create the first installment of a Toronto-based female-identified index FKA WomenWork BKA Labour of Love: A Feminist Archive.  If you wanted to know, or maybe if you didn't: I've also been photographing weddings and working, and trying to figure out what a 'break' looks like and more importantly, what an 'art practice' ought to be. Defining my terms, if you will. My practice feels a bit like driving or cycling where you slow down to round a bend and then accelerate out of it. Poetic, I know.

Just have to say bless the people who tell me day in and out that it is OK to not produce all the time, that sometimes we need to rest, that breaks are OK because obviously, I'm in this for the long haul. That said, this is more of a diary entry than a blog post of 'new work'.

This a is a tough one for me: all the photos are.. eugh.. digital! Unedited! Eek. Though in my not so humble opinion, pretty enchanting and weird. Have a l00k and don't be too hard on yourself and for the love of dog if you're in Toronto go run thru someone's sprinkler after this-- edit-- dry off if you got stuck in that tropical rain shower.

Here's a pile of rocks for you.
 

clicky :

 

Elora Gorgeous

 

 

 

 

Cotey Pope

 

                                                                                      

 (the outtakes)


Hey, hi you.



Oh it's been such a busy summer, and finally things are winding down. But not really. Maybe I've just figured out a better pacing for myself. Anyway, I have to admit that I'm hoarding hundreds of photos from the world, and it's so hard not to share. Alas I'm in the throes of making a book, applying for a grant, scanning film, wrapping up freelance work, and living my life.

Here's a photo of my friend and peer, artist and cool woman: Cotey Pope. It was taken after we did our shoot for my project/ book "Women Work: A Feminist Archive" (which is all in black and white, outtakes from that shoot are up there, too) but the colour on this day was just so glorious that I couldn't help but load a roll of colour. Cotey is one of a couple really sweet cool friends I've really connected with this summer.

I'm meeting so many new artists in the city and it's wonderful. But it's a funny feeling that, as your friend circles expand and overlap more and more, the city seems smaller and smaller.

On that note, back to editing. Maybe another update in a month. Just kidding. A week.

Nipissing West Arm

Well, I'm back sooner than anticipated. If you've seen me in the past two weeks I've probably blabbered on about having shot a million rolls of film while at a friend's family "camp" on the West Arm of Lake Nipissing recently--​ and I'm scanning the B&W on my flatbed and it's hot in my studio and I'm halfway through a dozen med. format rolls and I can't stop but I'm so conflicted and sifting through some heavy thoughts. I tried diligently to listen to the land while North, and I'm slowly deciphering what it was saying. Feeling a lot of gratitude for this Native Land and the stories it holds. I hope you all remember that, as settlers and the descendants of settlers, we have a responsibility to ensure this earth stays protected, to help ensure that the Harper government, oil and mining industries do not destroy entire communities and their resources with Pipelines, and that land treaties be honored. Listen to those communities under fire when they rise up and resist ongoing colonization, and listen to the land.

 

Holy smokes, it's been a minute, huh? Life has been very busy, and I'm very much in the middle of a massive ongoing project entitled Feminist Archive: Women& Work. The past 5 months have been dedicated to a lot of researching, and a lot of work to enable a series of interviews and portraits with cis and trans female visual artists living/ working in Toronto.

It's very very hard to keep the photos under wraps, but I will share *two* with you now that I love. Alicia Nauta and Jessica Valentin are two of so many incredibly talented and motivated artists I'm lucky enough to know and have photographed, and hopefully this project will allow me to forge connections and hear the voices of so many other Toronto artists whom I've yet to meet in life.

Anyway, there's a tiny idea of the portraits I'm making. If you don't hear from me for a while, it's because I'm in the darkroom! Check back on the regular though, I'll surprise you with something fabulous a little later this month!!

\xo

sbo

Mathilde

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of shooting with Matilde Pagnier. Ceramic maker and co-worker and all-around cool woman. I seldom shoot on expired film anymore, but here we have it...

We later shot black and white medium format in the studio,  but you'll have to wait to see those!

I've got a (black and white) gold mine of portraits, maybe you'll get a sneak peek this weekend...

Sasha

Hello, just a quick update, some nice portraits for you!  Did some work for musician and pal Sasha Chapin! Here he is, gaze averted and not giving many cares on this overcast day we decided was good for a shoot.

califlora and friends pt.iii

Okay, enough already.

Last batch, just as dee-lish as the last two.


First, I just want to sneak in some of these wild vantage points we found in Malibu. Very chill, very sunny. I would often forget either one of my cameras or a bunch of film when we were headed somewhere like this, but Airin was patient and I made do.

And now here we are, back to the place that has my heart, the town of Joshua Tree. I spent a mere three days there, but walking around just a few blocks of the town after the rain, in the smell of creosote, I found some kind of peace, one I hadn't known in many moons...

  

Talk about low ceilings!

This man really loved the Tragically Hip, we chatted in the road for a long time. He made the weird leathery thing you'll see if you keep scrolling! It's his art, he says. 

vacant house. a bunch of these. 

This was a special spot. Just in front of the house we stayed in. This felt like a very special moment, though the photograph itself isn't particularly thrilling. 

This is a Woodrat nest! It's massive, maybe 5' in diameter. Woodrats collect the crazy spiny pieces of Cholla cacti that fly around- among lots of other debris (they're also known as packrats) and are totally immune to their quills. These nests are sometimes as old as 10, 000 years old or some crazy thing. When one family dies or vacates, another one takes over the empty nest. Cool.

Last photo of the Cholla garden in the park. We crossed the boundary of high to low desert to get here for sunset. The light was totally surreal.

and here we are, back to the beach. This is the ocean in Santa Monica.

Airin Mcguinty folks, wonder woman, master of snacks. I remembered today when we ran into one another (but not literally because she was driving and I was cycling) how many hilarious and weird things we found we had in common on this trip. What a time! What a time...

To end this journey I'll show you this place which I covertly photographed with the waist-level focus of my Yashica T4 which focuses with a mind all its own. It's the top-most level of the Museum of Jurassic Technology. This place and Joshua Tree remain the most tranquil and magical places I've been this in a really long time. 

Thanks everyone! It's been nice to share. You'll be able to find prints and other iterations of these images in coming months.

xo

bo