past... present... and future....

a still. march 1978.

filmed by herbert adasko.

love and health to all...

doc now 2011

the doc now festival 2011 website is now online!

held in may and june, the doc now festival is ryerson university's annual mfa documentary media festival.

the film i've been working on for over a year now will be premiering at the lightbox in downtown toronto the first week in june!

the site will evolve over the next few weeks and soon will be fully up and running with info on the festival, dates, films, photos, installations, new media, storytelling galore!

for now here's a sneak preview and be sure to check out docnow.ca

love and health to all...

school daze.

if it wasn't for school, i don't think i would have ever gotten into photography.

it started with my high school photography teacher, ms. johnson. by far, she was the most influential teacher i had during those high school years, guiding my creativity with photo assignments that i still integrate into classes i teach, 15 years later...

those early assignments from back in the daze, playing around with shutter speed and exposure, point of view and the thing itself. those were the moments of crafting and creating, i'll never forget placing that first sheet of photo paper in the darkroom, into a bath of developer and watching chemistry and creativity appear like magic. i hope those moments never disappear from the present, from memory.

and as computers transitioned and transition our photographic creativity i came across this image from an assignment in college, to create a book cover. i chose "The Jungle" by upton sinclair, a book that still resonates to this day. i remember roaming over to northfield's supermarket and roaming the meat section, snapping photos.

this was the image and title that made the grade.

love and health to all...

happy birthday sammy.

Dear Sammy,

Happy birthday Sam. It's March 4th today, your birthday, and I hope wherever you are, that you are celebrating it with mom and marvin, with grandma and grandpa, grandmother and grandfather. I hope that neville is there, it would be nice to see his smile and grin again. if yann is cutting the cake, do tell him that i celebrated my birthday with lars this december and that it's always great to hang with his bro. of course, clara sends her love to you and to ellen, we all do in fact, and please give mom a big hug and big kiss for me and tell her that pops and dave and i are all doing well, sticking together like always, and that we miss her and love her.

Sammy, you'd be 27 today and though i wasn't there, i do remember your last birthday here on earth. you were in cali and i think davey might have been out there for it. either that or he came around this time. i think you guys went to coachella. alex might have gone with you guys too. though i was abroad i made you that birthday video greeting card with the help of the world's largest democracy. sometimes i go into dad's room and watch it on my computer. it makes me smile but it also makes me cry. i miss you more than i think is possible to ever express and i don't think it will ever go away.

just five years ago we were still hanging. i know the times were tough, but we still were together watching t.v. on late spring afternoons. and we got out a little too that summer and not just to the hospital and shit. remember that great walk you and i and alex and pops went on across the brooklyn bridge? man, i misjudged the distance that day, dad was making fun of me and we all got to where we were going, which by the way, i've forgetten what our destination was that day...

i was talking to uncle hardy at the end of last summer about that late august dinner we had in long island. remember we bought a whole fish and ev-doggs cooked it. hardy and shelly were there, plus d and i and ev and alex. i just looked at the photo, it was the 7 of us.

oh yeah, i got an email from nelly today in gaborone. i don't think she knew it was your birthday, but she just emailed to say hello. i told her it was your birthday and that the stars or the heavens must've hinted it to her and perhaps that's why she wrote. she had a baby girl a month or two back, her name is lone dawn. everybody in botswana says hello and they miss you too.

sammy, it's been five years. how time flies? and i do have to admit, it seems just like yesterday we were all hanging. i think probably for the rest of my life it will feel like that, even when i'm old and gray and perhaps even a grandpa, but who knows. like pops says, one day at a time.

and though i see and think about you everyday, when storms roll in and waves crash and pops harks that the peregrine falcon is on the balcony, i can't wait to see you soon.

be sure to say hello to everyone when you reach their shores, the fams in montevideo and santiago, in dehradun and pune, by the ebro and through the okavango, over pints in dublin and derry, the five boroughs and beyond...

i love you sam.

happy birthday, ben