Twillingate – Day 1- June 1, 2021

Today I officially start my residency in Twillingate…

While not in Twillingate…lol…

For those of you who don’t know. There was a Covid-19 outbreak in Central Newfoundland that resulted in the entire region moving to Alert Level 4. A decision was made to delay my move to Twillingate, 100% the right thing to do.

I won’t go into a lot of detail on that here, it’s covered VERY well in an interview I did with the CBC Morning Show yesterday, along with a musician, Jordan Harnum.

You can find that interview here.

One thing I want to say though, the folks I am working with at the Unscripted Festival have been amazingly supportive and I couldn’t be happier with the level of communication and accommodation.

So, here I sit, watching the rain POUR outside, ITCHING to get out and get to work but knowing that there will be a small delay in getting to the region.

I’ll be busy though, lots of planning, lots of research, lots of prep to be done before I actually get out there.

So, I thought it would be of benefit to kind of state what I am hoping to achieve during my stay in Twillingate. both professionally and personally.

First and foremost, I want to engage the community, I want to get to know the folks who live there, I want to get to know the character of the region. The history. I want to come away in two months feeling that I contributed as much or more to the enrichment of the folks who live there as I take away myself. I will do this by being out in the community and visible. I will let people know in advance where I am planning to travel on a particular day, what I am shooting and I am now extending an open invitation to ANYONE to join me on a shoot as long as its Covid-19 safe to do so.

We can talk technique, style, content, we can talk about the history of the place or we can talk about the price of gas or the weather. It just important that I talk tom folks.

I also hope to set certain evenings to be in local establishments, have a coffee or a beer, while I do some photo edits, or work on a video edit. As with the shoots, I invite folks to join me for a chat is Covid-19 allows.

I am going to produce a series of photos and videos while in residency. I won’t go into much detail about it in the early blog posts. Rest assured they well be of the theme and character that got me to the dance.

I have several ideas re: presentation and display. It’ll be fun to see where it leads. I have a preconceived notion of what I want it to look like, BUT, when I actually get out there the environment itself might send me in a different direction. I think the key to producing good work is allowing your surrounding to inform the work you produce.

So, here’s the promise

1- A daily blog, both written and video ( the video will start once I get out there, the written starts now)

2- Weekly teasers of the fine art works being produced, both the photo and video work as well as some sound work as well.

3- Interactions with the entire community.

4- Availability to all, I may do some lives on TikTok from on site to do so Q&A’s

Thats about it for now, just know I am excited to get out there and get rolling….

So exciting!

Oh, by the way, the feature image? A cel photo I took during my LAST visit to Twillingate about 10 years ago….

Things have changed, both in Twillingate and for me.. lol… time to get some new images and memories.