État D'Urgence Mani-Festival: Because The Homeless Should Have Their Own Festival

Alanah Heffez of Spacing Montreal and I made our way to the État D'Urgence Mani-Festival taking place at BERRI-Square in Montreal's downtown core. Some of the photos will be featured on Spacing Montreal's blog. It was rainy and quite cold, but about 100 attendees were present for food, fire dancers and a variety of musical acts.

All in all, a surprisingly friendly and forward environment. Folk were more then happy to find their way in front of my lens for some impromptu captures and chat me up thereafter. I shouldn't be surprised, but the number of street folk with Facebook pages did catch me off guard. I've made a few promises that I must keep with these shots.

One new friend was a very proud fellow by the name of DB with a great Toronto tattoo emblazoned across his forearm. Apparently it was a cover-up for a previous tattoo and had become its own project in development. I look forward to seeing the next phase of the piece.

I'll be honest, the cold and wet got to me after a good hour and a half and we soon found ourselves in the shelter of a nearby pub to watch the Canadiens lose to the Penguins. The luxury of such a shuffle is certainly not lost on me tonight. Nor is the bed less then 10 feet from my work station.

In the words of the festival organizers:

"État d’Urgence is the fruit of an impressive mobilization of several hundred people building an honest-to-goodness urban village and offering over five days, around the clock, a variety of services to homeless people. Its eclectic artistic programming serves as a catalyst for unprecedented social encounter. État d’Urgence promotes proper social hygiene because its participants deal face-to-face, help one another and discover one another. Art is the uniting principle here; it sheds light on the suffering, acknowledges it and offers strength and resilience!"

It's late and I have a shoot at 10am, so this will be brief. I'm terribly proud of this Roller Derby shot I took of Montreal hardcore Derby mistress Heidi Beater Pan-Tease Rubin and I wanted to show it off.

The kids are burning something in the kitchen...

Caboodle!


Megan Deere!


Zach!

I'm with Caboodle all weekend. The young theatre collective (it seems so strange writing that) from Belleville Ontario are spending the weekend in Montreal. My good friend Meghan Deere, the facilitator/creator/director of Theatre Caboodle decided a few months ago to bring the group to Montreal for a second shot at putting a few pieces the kids created and co-wrote on a small stage in the Mile End.

I've been declared co-producer as well as photographer (mainly because I keep tapping my network to build and audience) but I'm also hosting 3 of the 9 younguns at my place in NDG. For the eternal bachelor, feeding, putting to bed and making sure everyone is clean before we leave the house activities are quite the novelty and I have to say I'm enjoying the young company of the likes of Zach, Erin and Simon. The rest of the crew are staying in the Plateau... divided up between Meg and our colleague Kim's place.

The kids are performing tonight and tomorrow night. I'm right now drafting this post from Mainline Theatre while the kids watch a play (a real play at a real theatre!). More info about the show can be found here.

Here are some of the photos I took when they were in town this Summer.


Katie!


Clare!


Simon!

The Kitchen Project

Let's wax a little less poetic here and talk about some work and some photos I've had of late. It's been awhile (again) since my last post. This one marks my campaign to mount one blog post a week for the next year. I have slew of gigs to report on, but I'll start with the one that featured food. Food. Food.

2009-10-25 The Kitchen Project - Images by Tristan Brand

The next 5 years... And Evelyn Hofer's 87.

I'm trying to decide how to lead my life for the next few years. I'm coming to terms with the fact that it is difficult to make a living here in Montreal and that all the work I would like to be doing asks that I be more qualified. Some of that comes in the form of a degree, some of it pure work experience. So the age old question arises: is it time to dedicate myself to finding a photography job and less private work? While there seems to be no end to the things I can shoot here in Montreal, the need for me to shoot things seems limited. I made the decision to pursue humanitarian and NGOs efforts and lend them my skills, but the question of how to go about that remains just beyond my grasp right now.

More importantly, I just want to shoot more so I can get better at what I do. So I can see people better. I don't mean to sound self-deprecating; I know I am getting better at what I do with each new experience (yes, this is a race with myself, fuck). If anything, I want to sound positive here: there are a never ending stream of talented photographers and photojournalists in the world that inspire me to be better. One such person is Evelyn Hofer, who passed away on November 2nd.

I won't attempt to paraphrase the commentary I've read after her passing, nor will I try to deny becoming most familiar with her in the the time following her death (funny, that). The portrait photos she achieves are so much more inside her subject then anything I've ever attempted or anything I've seen in a long time. Apparently she favored very composed images (many of her images border on still life) and it says to me that her character must have been something to encounter if she was able to achieve the work she did. Was she boisterous and convincing? Was she quiet and commanding? Was she shy and did her subjects mold themselves in sympathy? Was she something else entirely?

Here is an exercise: browse her portraits and imagine being around her as she conversed with her subjects and went to work. What sort a person do you imagine? Do that before you read anything written or said about her and see what your imagination drafts and how close or near to the real thing you are.

And for some of her scene work, look here to New York Proclaimed.