One aspect of my freelance work that I really enjoy is industrial or worksite photography. It’s tempting for some to look at those kinds of places in the way most people usually look at them: tough, stoic, a very basic and straightforward ‘look’.
But I look at those places as being like movie sets - dramatic, fascinating, a place where light and shadows meet dirt and sparks and machines. I’ve yet to see one that doesn’t set my visual cortex into overdrive. They’re always rich with possibilities and I love that I see them that way. Creating images that don’t look like most peoples’ pre-conceived notions is the kind of creative fun that makes photography my calling.
This summer I had the opportunity to photograph Dave Copp Steel on the outskirts of our city. The people couldn’t be nicer and more fun, from the namesake owner right on through to the guys on the work floor. I spent a morning in what felt like a Hollywood set, and with a few lights (quickly placed) and an eye on my surroundings to keep safe, I created a host of images the client will use to bring their website to life and make themselves stand out from the crowd.
Winnipeg Photographer
Pride Parade: 2024
This weekend saw the big event for Pride Month in the city - the Pride Parade, winding from the Legislative Building through downtown to the Forks.
It was a fun mix of my former genre of daily newspaper photography, street photography and impromptu portraiture. Anytime plenty of people gather, especially for a positive purpose, it’s a great place for photography.
One of the many corporate participants unfurls a large Pride flag while queueing for the start of the 2024 Winnipeg Pride Parade.
A group of spectators watch the parade unfold along Memorial Boulevard from the parkade of the former Bay building.
A different view of spectators in the former Bay building parkade watching the Pride Parade unfold on the street below them.
A child wearing a Pride necklace waves support for the procession in front of him on Memorial Boulevard.
One of the many revellers makes their way along a crowded Memorial Boulevard.
Few places are as rich and interesting for classic street photography as a parade. The art, expression and spirit of a Pride parade make it even more productive for the ‘flaneur’ approach to photography.
Motorcycles, and a casual-attire Spiderman, are seen at the head of the 2024 Pride parade.
Where it starts each year - people waiting to take part gather in Memorial Park, across from the Manitoba Legislature. This ‘bardo’ state, of in-between or waiting for what comes next, is always one of the most interesting places to look at as a photographer, in my experience.
Memories of Summer
With the Victoria Day long weekend here, it seems a good time to share a few images I came across randomly while (trying) to organize my sheets of negatives and contact sheets from the past decade or two.
The Victoria Day weekend is sort of the unofficial start to summer and after the kind of winters we usually get in this part of the continent it’s one that means a lot to Canadians. When I was living and working in Brandon another hallmark of summer was the annual Summer Fair and especially the carnival midway.
It was a pretty terrific place to be a photographer, as you’d see a wide variety of humanity parading before you, all complete un-self conscious and not terribly concerned with a photographer. In other words, an ideal place to do street photography and (beyond that) the classic ideal of the ‘flaneur’ . I always found it a wonderful place to people-watch in a setting where a lot of the closed guardedness of daily life would fall away and people could just have fun.
The pictures shared here today were taken on medium-format film on a Hasselblad camera - not the most ideal set-up for street photography but one I’d used before in travelling to Nepal - I wanted these pictures, taken around 2014, to stand apart from the usual newspaper coverage or even street photography type of images. I set out to try photograph what it felt like to go to the carnival, in a slightly different way - a detached yet empathetic observer.
I’d love to hear your thoughts! I’ve enabled comments on this post, or head over to my account on Instagram or Foto and share there.
Blessing of the Baskets - Continuing the search for Faith and Rituals
In my last post, I’d mentioned about continuing the personal project on faith and the pursuit of ritual - it’s interested me for a long time, in photography, how people across a wide variety of cultures, religions, places etc. all share this common desire for rituals.
The most recent instalment of this project came this weekend, with the Ukrainian ritual called ‘blessing of the baskets’, a high point in the religious year and a hallmark of Easter on the Orthodox calendar for Ukrainians.
It was a return for me, as I’d photographed this ritual previously, and the venue - the beautiful and historic St. Vladimir’s and Olga’s Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral - was one of the very first I’d photographed in when starting this project years ago.
The baskets contain food, especially bread which is relevant given Ukraine’s abundant wheat fields, and candles to spread light and receive blessings including sprinkling of holy water.
It was a fitting event to signify rebirth of this project, and I hope to continue it in the months ahead, as well as give clarity to its purpose going forward and exhibiting it in some form, also.
If you have ideas for various rituals to depict in photographs, whether it be small and ordinary and everyday, or large and grand occurring on special occasions - I’d love to include them. I’d also love to include a lot of diversity in this project, showing humanity’s shared urge to express itself through ritual.
Please contact me if you have suggestions - my website has a Contact section, I can be reached at email via talk@colincorneau.com or via Instagram
