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General - Welcome/Introductions: Hello from Blork (aka Ed)

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    Hello. Just thought I'd pop in and introduce myself. My name is Ed, but I'm better known online as "Blork" (a silly online name I made up about 12 years ago -- it has nothing to do with Björk). I've had a blog running since late 2000 (The Blork Blog) and I've had a photo blog running since 2004 (Monday Morning Photo Blog). I also have two other blogs kicking around, and now this one on Aminus3, "From the Hip."

    Actually, "From the Hip" started back in March 09, but it was hosted on Wordpress, which is a mighty fine blog platform but not so great for photo blogs. I wanted "From the Hip" to be separate from the Monday Morning Photo Blog (MMPB) because MMPB is sort of a catch-all thing with no specific theme or direction. It's got new pictures, old pictures, B&W, color, of many different styles, spanning more years than I care to disclose. "From the Hip," however, is a specific project; an experiment in "Clandestine Street Photography."

    I explain it more fully on my "About" page, but the gist of it is this: In Montreal (where I live) it is illegal to publish someone's photograph without their permission. This even applies to street photography, which makes Montreal (all of Quebec, actually) very different from the rest of North America (and Western societies in general). This is due to a landmark legal case in 1998, which you can also read about on my "About" page.

    As a form of protest, I'm doing this "From the Hip" project, which is street photography that I take inconspicuously, holding the camera at waist level and guessing at composition. It's quite different from other street photography in that I never (or almost never) show faces. When I tell people I'm doing street photography without faces they give me a strange look. After all, street photography is all about the people, and people are all about their faces. Take away their faces and what do you have left? (That's what I'm trying to find out.)

    Confession: I'm also doing "From the Hip" because I really like tilted and fuzzy photographs. I can't explain it. It just is. :-) (Although I did talk about it on my blog recently.)

    So here I am! I found Aminus3 recently through a friend and it seems to be a better venue for my project than Wordpress. So far so good!
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    Hi Ed, welcome to Aminus3,
    I've read your introduction with interest, frankly, I had no idea about the street photography in Quebec... strange. But I guess, stranger things happened ??
    Anyway, looking forward to seeing your images.

    cheers
    Roman
    • CommentAuthormagda
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2009
     
    Hmmmm.... Interesting! I just had a quick "boo" at your photoblog! :) Nice work. Welcome to AM3! :))
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      CommentAuthorjason (Admin)
    • CommentTimeAug 13th 2009
     
    Hi Ed - welcome to Aminus3
    I was not aware of that law in Montreal -
    great concept for a Photoblog
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    Hi Ed.

    I've been to your am3 blog (as you'll see). Street photography is my thing, too.I had no idea of the situation in Montreal, and cannot believe that they would enact something like that. A sad day for documentary photography, with so much that could have been, being lost for the future.
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    Hi Andrew. It's a pretty silly law, and for the most part it doesn't have a huge effect because (a) most people don't know about it, so they are unlikely to pursue the matter if their picture shows up somewhere, and (b) many people are against the law. However, publishers are aware, so it's hard to get street photos published around here unless there are model releases or the photos were taken at a distinctly "newsworthy" event. (That's an exception to the law -- I'm not sure how it's worded, but you can publish photos taken at a public event, or something like that.)

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