If you're passing through Minden, Ontario, my work is up at the Agnes Jamieson Gallery until February 25.The curator, Laurie Carmount, did a beautiful job of putting this together. Please drop in if you're in that neck of the woods.
Evidence January 5, 2012 - Feburary 25, 2012 Opening Reception Saturday, January 14 at 1pm
Ryan Szulc and Darren Lum curated by Laurie Carmount
Society often holds photography to be undeniable documentation. It embodies everything and presents back to us unavoidable realities. Evidence is a group photography exhibition with Ryan Szulc and Darren Lum. The exhibition examines the role photography plays in society today. Is the ultimate role of photography to document? Does society hold it as the true witness of our time? How much do we trust it? If it has become abused by technology is it just ‘eye-candy’? We spend a huge amount of money and time living vicariously through events portrayed in a sensationalistic manner which, really, are none of our business. Yet we spend little time and give little consideration to images that are evidence of our interaction with land that could lead to serious ramifications. This exhibition moves from shocking to stark realities that pulls the viewer through a myriad of emotions. Szulc’s work records how humans have marked the land.
Ryan Szulc: A common thread in my photographs is the concept of nature reclaiming its space and the inevitable, and often haunting, remnants of human abandonment. The main intent with this series of work is to create a meditation on the effect of human existence on our landscape and to gain insight into the ‘dynamic interrelation’. Several of the images portray obvious human objects imposing on the landscape, others are seemingly void of any human trace. However, there is a dark narrative consistent in this series, exploring the relationship between the figures of the image, and the degree to which we perceive them. Yet, while often dark, they maintain an aesthetic appeal that that challenges the typical beauty one associates with landscape photography.
Ryan Szulc is a Toronto based photographer who has been shooting editorial and commercial projects for over 5 years. After graduating from the Humber College photography program, Ryan assisted several photographers before opening his own studio. His work has been featured in Applied Arts, Toronto Life, The Grid, Report on Business, Canadian Living, and Chatelaine among others. Ryan’s work has won several awards and has been featured in numerous group shows.
Darren Lum: With my experience in journalism I've always wondered if it is the media that fuels a need for graphic images or if it is the other way around? For most people what we see and remember are scenes of a graphic nature and compel us to look. I want to explore the public’s desire to ‘see all’, that desire to gaze at someone else’s misfortune versus the morality and right for privacy of the victim.
Darren Cory Lum is a Canadian born photographer of Chinese descent who was raised in the Toronto suburbs and became inspired by photojournalists such as Robert Capa and Henri Cartier Bresson. He presently works at the Haliburton County Echo and The Minden Times local newspapers. His work has garnered several provincial and national newspaper awards and has been used in the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun and USA Today, London Free Press and wire services such as the Canadian Press. He has more than 10 years of experience working in the field of journalism. Lum has been an instructor at Humber College for first year journalism students. In 2008, Darren collaborated on the animated short, Flipbook. It was produced by Stone by Stone Production and supported by Bravo!Fact. For that project he documented the Muskoka Novel Marathon with more than 12,000 shots. He also completed an intensive semester of instruction in photojournalism at the Danish School of Journalism in Denmark.
Here are few of my pieces that are on display at the gallery:
