Nice But Frustrating

I got a nice note from Rob W, the writer of the article in FRAMES photography magazine on "Ethics" that included 3 of THE FAMILIES OF DUMP PHOTOGRAPHS.

Here is the comment.

Here are the photographs in the story.

What I find frustrating is that every now and again I get a comment like this about the work from some higher up person in the world, educated, in power some where etc. But when I make submissions of the same work to others in power, at the various top end Canadian Galleries and Museums I often do not even get an acknowledgement that they received or viewed the work. They do not have the time to view, or maybe they just don't give a f-ck. Places like the Art Gallery Of Alberta or the Art Gallery of Ontario completely ignore the dump story. Places like the Winnipeg Art Gallery do write back, are encouraging but then say they have only an Indigenous Art mandate, and cannot show the photographs. Others like the Art Gallery of Vancouver or the National Gallery in Ottawa, do communicate but things do not really move foreword. At least they do write back, not like the snobby AGA and AGO.

My goal has since I started photography 40+ years ago has always been to have the work shown in Major Canadian galleries, to have the photo stories told to large Canadian audiences, to have the photographs collected for future generations of Canadians to view. The frustration I feel, is that the photographs always seem to be impressing the wrong people. The people in the galleries could care less. I always feel that I have failed my subjects after these rejections, like I let them down.

Maybe someday a major show at a major museum will happen, heck I should have 20 years of life left. We are running out of time thou!!