photojunkie

There is one day standing between me and the opening of Toronto Squared. My nerves are racing, luckily most of the hard work is done. Last night, we hung the show at the restuarant so technically if you are in the area you could take a sneak peek today. I guess this is it. I’m speechless.

Finally got around to getting to the Toronto Free Gallery during the day to shoot the window. It was also an excuse to show Matt my work in action while he was here.

The installation runs for at least another week at the Toronto Free Gallery.

Fellow Toronto Photoblogger Bill Eadie checks out my Portraits in the Park window installation at the Toronto Free Gallery. If you haven’t checked it out, there is still plenty of time. The window installation will be up until Saturday April 8th.

Last week, my window installation of Portraits in the Park opened at the Toronto Free Gallery. It was a wet evening, but we had a decent turnout despite the weather.

This is a shot of Antony Hare and I in front of the window last Thursday night. Antony was the creative mind behind the map illustration.

You can view the installation, up close and personal, 24 hours a day at the Toronto Free Gallery until April 8th.

So I currently have a 5 foot by 10 foot illustrated map of Toronto that spans from High Park down to Cherry Beach, in my posession. It looks simply amazing and will be installed in the window at the Toronto Free Gallery which will be showcasing some of my Portrait in the Park images.

I gotta thank Antony Hare for his skillful work on creating the map. I also must thank Patrick Robinson for printing up the map. You guys rock.

UPDATE: I will be installing the window on Tuesday evening. The official opening party will be from 8pm to 10pm on Thursday evening. Hope to see you there.

The last month has been quite busy with planning and scheduling. It’s both exciting and stressful, but despite the craziness, it’s all good things. I’m please to announce two upcoming shows in the near future. Please mark these dates in your calendars and come out and see the shows in person.

Portraits in the Park
March 9th to April 8th 2006
Toronto Free Gallery
660 Queen Street East.
Opening Party on Thursday March 9th in conjunction with Cult of Speed Meets the Slow Movement exhibit. Time TBA.

All shot during the summer of 2005, Rannie Turingan explores many of Toronto’s green spaces and invites the city’s inhabitants to pose for him and his Yashica Mat124G. This window installation at the Toronto Free Gallery’s 24 Hour gallery space will showcase a number of portraits from his series called Portraits in the Park. The installation will also feature an illustration by Antony Hare.

Toronto Squared
April 29th to June 6th
In conjunction with the CONTACT photography festival
le petit dejeuner
191 King Street East.
Opening Party on Saturday April 29th, 2006 7:30pm to 10:30pm

Toronto is a city of a million stories, some told, many hidden. Over the years, Rannie Turingan has captured this by seeking out inspiration in the unlikeliest of places. Through his lens he uncovers a patchwork of scenes from the everyday, often dismissed by society. In Toronto Squared, he presents you with his view of the city, one square at a time.

Do forget, I currently have work showing at the In Transit exhibit at the Toronto Free Gallery until the end of February.

click on image for larger view. Michael (above) was one of the first shots of the series

I just found out that “Portraits in the Park” is featured in the new issue of Broken Pencil. They will be selling the issue at Canzine in Toronto on October 30th.

Thanks to Matt B who tipped me off and scanned the article for me.

As for if I will be doing it again next summer. The answer is I don’t know. There will be ONE last session which will occur very soon on a weekend.

Things are going to be a little bit slow around here over the next month. I will still be updating, but don’t be surprised if there are huge gaps followed by tons of content, followed by more huge gaps.

Anyone looking for Portraits in the Park info. I think I will be doing one or two sessions in October and then I will be closing the book on shooting that project. There will be no date set for this week. But hopeful one next week.

I don’t remember the exact date. But I have been blogging for 5 years now. I started in my mid 20’s and now I am in my early 30’s . Over the years I have met a lot of people both virtually and actually. My life is forever changed.

Something else needs to change in my life. And changed soon.

Just a reminder that I will be holding a Portraits in the Park session this evening in the green space between Metro Hall and Roy Thompson Hall. There is a good chance it may rain. If that is the case, I will pack up and head over to the Charlotte room for the Enemies of the Ordinary photo show.

Wednesday, September 14th, 2005
Metro Hall from 5:15 to 7:15 pm
Located south of King Street between Metro Hall and Roy Thompson Hall

I have added 10 more portraits to the Portrait in the park set on flickr. These were taken at the Toronto Cloud Gardens, right in the heart of Downtown Toronto. It was a visually interesting park which melded nature with urban structures.

Alison at the Cloud Gardens

Portraits in the Park : Does the Film Festival.

Since everyone is in Festival mode I am offering up two locations next week as a tribute to the film Festival. Anyone who brings a celebrity to the park session gets bonus points.

Tuesday September 13th 2005
Yorkville Park from 5:15pm to 7:15 pm
The park is located on Cumberland between Bay and Avenue Rd.
Right in the heart of Yorkville Village.

Wednesday, September 14th, 2005
Metro Hall from 5:15 to 7:15 pm
Located south of King Street between Metro Hall and Roy Thompson Hall

So if you are in the area or between movies drop by for a minute or two and have your mug shot.

FYI: If you were curious. I’m actually taking a week off from the Portraits in the Park project this week. I was originally gonna do a session tomorrow, but I think it might be too short notice for most people. Besides I have things I need to do.

I will be shooting on the Danforth tomorrow after 5pm for another project. I’ll probably start at Broadview and make my way to Pape and back. I still have Ken’s 85mm lens so if anyone is keen of having a digital portrait taken maybe we can meet up. Drop me a line.

After fear of being rained out from the reminants of Katerina, it looks like the Queen’s Park Session of Portraits in the Park is a go. Looking out the window, there are still a number of clouds in the sky, but the sun is definitely breaking through. Here are the details. I will probably be close to the statue of the guy on the horse.

Queens Park
North of the Provincial Parliament Buildings.
Wednesday, August 31st.
5:30pm to 7:30pm.

PS: I have all the pictures up to the High Park session ready for distribution.

I will be doing two sessions this week. One on Wednesday and one of Thursday. If you have been sitting on the fence about attending one of these sessions, I suggest getting off your behind and making it out. I have yet to schedule anything beyond Septemnber 1st. But I don’t suspect I will be doing a hell of a lot of sessions in the next few weeks. Possibly 3 or 4 and that will probably be the end of it. Here’s the info for this week.

Queens Park
North of the Provincial Parliament Buildings.
Wednesday, August 31st.
5:30pm to 7:30pm.

St James Park
King St. between Church and Jarvis
Thursday, September 1st, 2005.
5:30pm to 7:30pm.

I dunno if you have taken notice, but I have been posting a lot of portrait type shots lately. I hope you guys are enjoying them. I’ve certainly love taking them. Last night I picked up a batch of 7 rolls of film and dropped a ton of cash. Lemme just say, YIKES. The scary thing if that I recently got a whole pile of slide film from a friend and I’m afraid to shoot with it. It can become an expensive venture if I don’t moderate my shooting. In any case I think I will be doing more portrait type stuff into the fall. Not including the Park sessions.

Photo of Joey taken in High Park.

Among the rolls picked up were 4 rolls from the Cherry Beach and High Park sessions of Portraits in the Park. You can view the new images on my flickr set.

Notes: a) I think a need a dedicated screen to work with images, The images are definitely brighter on my powerbook. b) I’m surprised the Cherry Beach pictures came out okay, It got dark fast, as the sky was overcast and I saw starting at a later time than normal. c) The High Park pictures were shot on Ilford XP2, I couldn’t get a hold of any HP5. So you may notice that is a bit more contrast in these images.

Looks like I will be going into the darkroom sometime in the next few months and try my hand at printing some of these photos.

Andrew through my Yashica Mat 124G

Also got back a roll I shot with Andrew. I’m very pleased. Here is an alternate. Which do you prefer?

I was playing with the Flickr Mosaic Maker and created this collage of portraits from the first few sessions. It’s another excellent product by the folks at Flagrant Disregard.

Last night’s session of Portraits in the Park went really well. I think we had so many people in the park, that it actually scared away the few of the street folks that usually hang out at the cloud gardens. Thanks to everyone who showed up to have their picture taken and thanks to those who came out to hang out.

Next week I will be shooting at Queens Park (North of the Parliament Buildings) on Wednesday, August 31st and St James Park (King St. between Church and Jarvis) on Thursday, September 1st, 2005. On both days, I will be there between 5:30 and 7:30. [please write this down, as many folks have mixed up days]. I haven’t scheduled anything yet for the following week, but chances are I will continue doing different parks at least till the end of September.

Tomorrow I will be doing Portraits in the Park at the Cloud Gardens. It’s a small unique urban park just north of the financial district. I highly suggest checking the park out if you haven’t before. It’s easily missed if you don’t know it’s there, but really unique.

The Cloud Gardens
Richmond just west of Yonge Street.
Tuesday, August 23th.
5:30pm to 7:30 pm.

Try to come early if you can, as the last couple of locations, I have been kept busy shooting pretty much the entire two hour time slot.

This week’s Portraits in the Park sessions bring us to High Park in the west end of the City. The Park is located at 1873 Bloor St W just west of Keele. If you are taking the TTC, you want to take the Bloor subway line to High Park Station exit the station and cross to the south side of Bloor.

Now be warned this place is huge, so I do suggest the you refer to this map before heading to the Park. I won’t be too far from the main enterance near section C, the sculpture symposium between 6pm and 8pm.

Drop a note here if you think you are making it out, I already got a couple of notices from a few different people.

Please NOTE: If you have had your picture taken at any of the first 3 locations (The Grange, The Sculpture Garden or Bellevue), your print is ready for pick up. You can pick them up at any of the sessions. I will be sending out the scans that I have probably this weekend.

Next week, I will be at The Cloud Gardens on Richmond just west of Yonge Street on Tuesday, August 23th from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. The scheduled session for Thursday, August 25th at Cawathra Park is going to be postponed. My evenings next week are booked solid and I think I would prefer to have a day off.

So yesterday evening I had another Portraits in the Park Session. I think I shot 9 people on a roll and a half. I probably would have pressed on to shoot more, but the overcast sky brought on the darkness early, as well I had a start time that was an hour later then previous sessions.

Photo of the lighting kit and models by Adam

In any case, it was also a flickr meetup and we had a ton of fun on the beach into the night. I left at 11pm and there will still people hanging out.

Thanks to those who did a portrait with me this week. The next session is next Wednesday August 17th at High Park.

I’ll be shooting tomorrow at Cherry Beach after 6:30 pm. I will be set up just east of the lifegaurd house. You’ll find me by the guy with the loud speakers, aka the Toronto Flickr Group meetup. So come on down and join the party.

You can see some of the images from the first three sessions at Flickr

This summer I started a new project called “Portraits in the Park”. Every week I will set up shop at one of our local parks armed with a tripod and my Yashica Mat 124G. The goal is to shoot as many portraits as possible. What I will end up doing with them, who knows. At the beginning of each week, I will announce a location and time where I will be shooting.

I will take photos of any and all willing participants. One possibly two shots per person. Come in costume, come dressed up, come as you are, just come to the park. I will do this as a free service to all who participate, but I will accept a suggested 5 dollar donations for each portrait [for film and processing]. Each participant will recieve a copy of their photo and a scan.

(more…)

There is this wonderful little park in Kensington Market called Bellevue Park. They have a decent playground, a wading pool and a crazy statue of the King of Kensington, Al Waxman. This was the location of my third session of “Portraits in the Park”. The session started off okay, despite the impending thunderstorm (which never did happen). Andrea was the first to show up, followed by Allan, Sean and his friend Heather, Carrie and Nadia. So I pretty much shot everyone without and hitch and a few of us stayed and hang out while we waited to see if anyone else would show up. In the meantime Carrie pulled out her camera, popped on her 300mm lens and started shooting things around the park. Needless to say the camera got the attention of some of the locals in the park and they started screaming across the park to not take pictures of her. After stating that she wasn’t taking pictures of them, they proceeded to close in on us, streaming at us and making a huge scene, saying it was illegal for us to be taking pictures in the park and they they would have the legal right to take our film or smash our cameras. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and eventually they left us alone unscathed after Nadia deleted two images on her camera, that showed “their crowd” in the blurry background.

I did get a little worried as they start accusing all of us, stating that they saw me taking pictures earlier. If they were really paying attention, they would have noticed that I was taking pictures of certain people, who I knew, who also signed model releases and not random riff raff like them.

Sean provided me with a link to this interesting article. Basically, we have a legal right to be able to shoot pictures of people in public, doing public things without getting their consent. But publishing this photos, consent may be required. In any case, we were infact doing nothing illegal. And if the woman decided to smash anyone of our cameras, she would be in the wrong.

Shortly after the incident, it started to spit, so we took that as a cue to leave. Carrie and Nadia joined me for drinks at the Emmbassy down the street, followed shortly by Stefan, who couldn’t find us in the park. But this isn’t where the story ends. Afterwards, there was still a bit of light, so I told Stefan that we should head back to the park to do his shots and finish off my roll. By this point the locals that verbally attacked us were gone. In any case we decided to go over to the far end of the park, by the Al Waxman statue. This is where we found this character [I totally understand Matt's title now]. So I quickly shot off my roll on Stefan and his Bike, and then we were gonna head down to a exhibit opening at Pikto, but before we left Carrie wanted to try and get pictures of the guy by the statue. Needless to say, Carrie’s 300mm didn’t go unnoticed and the guy came over screaming at her. It didn’t last as long as the first encounter, as we packed up and started to leave, but the guy still had time to put a death curse on Carrie.

So never again will I be shooting any pictures in that park and this is the reason why I don’t like shooting strangers in public.

The next session of Portraits in the Park is going to be at Ashbridges Bay Park tomorrow (Sunday. August 7th) I will be out there most of the afternoon for a Birthday party. Drop me a comment or an email if you wanna make it out to this one and I can give you my cellphone number so you can track me down. Otherwise, I’ll also be at Clarke Beach (aka Cherry Beach) on Thursday August 11th anytime after 6:30pm. There’s gonna be a Flickr meetup there, so you may wanna check that out.

PS: Nadia has a better account of the first encounter on her blog

UPDATE : I will near the sheltered picnic area by the children’s playground this afternoon in Ashbridges Bay Park. Probably between 2 and 6ish

First of all, sorry for switching days. At 4:30 on Tuesday evening it was still raining. Of course by the time 5:30 came around everything started to clear up.

I will be at Bellevue Park today, Thursday August 4th between 5:30 pm and 7:30 pm. The park is located in Kensington Market along Augusta, just north of Dundas.

If it does begin to rain, I will be having a drink at the Embassy just north of the park on Augusta.

Anyone, who had their portrait taken at Grange Park or the Toronto Sculpture Garden, can come and pick up their complimentary print.

It’s currently raining in North York and the city is expecting a risk of thunder showers all evening. Needless to say I won’t be at Bellevue Park in Kensington Market as planned. Will probably switch it over to Thursday. Check back for the latest developments.

I shot off another roll at the park yesterday. This week’s location was the tiny Toronto Sculpture Garden just off King, East of Church. After a stormy morning, the sun came out creating a gorgeous afternoon. Thanks go out to the folks who dropped in and hung out at the park.

In attendance, Carrie | Jon | Maria | Sam | Dusty | Miles

Next week I will be at Bellevue Park in Kensington Market. Tuesday August 2nd. 5:30 to 7:30pm.

Last week’s first session went well, I shot off one roll and had 10 people show up for portraits. Not a bad start. I’d be more than pleased to do one roll a week. I haven’t gotten the initial roll back but I think I got some good shots. Time will tell.

Portraits in the Park : Location 2
The Sculpture Garden on King Street, just east of Church Street.
Wednesday July 27th.
Between 5:30pm and 7:30pm
[google map]
It is on the South side of the street across from the church that sits beside St James Park.

Looks like the weather should be decent, so let me know if you can make it down.

Photos by Edward Jackman

The first session of “Portraits in the Park” went well. I ended up shooting 12 exposures in the two hours I was in the Park. A few people got tied up or lost, next time perhaps. Kendall has a shot on his site today.

Thanks to those that showed up.

Liz | John | Eva | Dave | Edward | Kendall | Michael and Sara | Jose | Pramesh | Miles

I have confirmed dates and times for more Portraits in the Park locations.

Tell your friends, bring your friends. You don’t have to have a website or be a blogger in order to get shot. You just need to be willing.

Current Locations

* Grange Park, just off Beverley Street, between Dundas and Queen. Thursday July 21st. 5:30 to 7:30pm (followed by a Toronto photoblogger get together)
* The Sculpture Garden on King, just east of Church Street. Wednesday July 27th. 5:30 to 7:30pm
* Bellevue Park in Kensington Market. Tuesday August 2nd. 5:30 to 7:30pm.
* Ashbridge’s Bay Park. Sunday August 7th. 4pm to 6pm (I will be in the area earlier for a birthday party)
* Cherry Beach just east of the Lifegaurd house. Thursday August 11th. 6:30 to dusk. (followed by the Toronto Flickr Meetup)
* High Park on Wednesday August 17th. The exact time TBA.

Future Locations

* Cawathra Park, behind 519 Community Centre off Church Street.
* Trinity Bellwoods Park just off Queen Street.
* Cloud Gardens just of Richmond just west of Yonge Street.
* Queens Park north of the Provincial Parliament Buildings.
* Kew Gardens in the Beach.
* Allan Gardens.

I have also decided to include more remote parks, by reservation only. If you don’t see a location near you, please feel free to leave a comment and I can make arrangements to meet you at a park near you. I will announce these locations online when they are confirmed, but these will be shorter 30 minute slots.

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