Artists can be a funny bunch, pushing themselves to extremes to find meaning, and bending concepts to their will. 

One such artist is Finnish photographer Tatu Gustafsson, who is about to finish a residency at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, Finland. 

He graduated from the Turku Arts Academy in 2012, and since then he has been led by art in various different directions. 

This includes eccentricities such as living in a house that has no handles, existing without a phone or shoes, and traveling around Finland making self-portraits by being captured on weather and traffic cameras. 

Over a four year period, Gustafsson explored his native country, eerily posing in front of roadside cameras, capturing sinister, Blair Witch type images in various different locations. 

The project was born out of Gustafsson’s insecurities with traditional portraiture, telling Lithuanian website Bored Panda:

“I had just graduated from Turku Arts Academy in 2012, and I was in a situation where I had to look back on what I had done and decide if I wanted to continue in the same direction or start something different. 

“I never felt like I had the ability to make well-composed and beautiful pictures, so I thought that I wanted to do something that is more conceptual. I had seen one of the weather camera pictures somewhere and I thought that those are really interesting but maybe I could add something into them.”

He added that the project was inspired by a dislike of the control a photographer has when he or she is taking a picture, and a desire to let go of that control.

Gustafsson spent one week, every month, for four years living in his car, travelling around Finland to gather the shots, and the automated weather cameras served as the perfect tool for his project.

Every 12 minutes, over 700 roadside cameras all over Finland capture photos of their surroundings, which are then uploaded to the public Finnish Transport Agency website, where they are available for 24 hours.

Many of you will not be alone in feeling that this project has an air of pretension, however, speaking to The Creators Project, Gustafsson said:

“I have tried to find a way to make art that is democratic in the sense that everyone could do it,” adding that he is still looking for “a way to do an art piece that doesn’t need money or skill.”

More of Gustafsson’s work can be seen on his Instagram page.

If you prefer the more traditional way of taking a portrait, take a look at our guide to the best cameras for portraits. 

We’ve also put together guides to the best cameras for beginners, and the best cameras for professionals. 

Whether you want a keepsake of a trip to the region, want to document your favourite lookout spot, or need photos for your local business, Kawartha Kaptures Photography does exactly what its name suggests: captures the essence of the Kawarthas.

Through her business, Ennismore photographer Linda Kassil combines her three greatest passions: her camera, nature, and her home in the Kawarthas.

Though an avid hiker and adventurer who picked up photography from a young age, Kassil had no intention of turning the hobby into a professional business until she retired and moved to Chemong Lake. There, with more time on her hands and more time spent in nature, she was encouraged by friends to sell her photos.

Today, Kawartha Kaptures Photography offers a collection of services to help customers preserve their own memories of the Kawarthas. Available as canvas prints, framed photos, and greeting cards, Kassil’s photos explore nature through waterscapes, landscapes, wildlife, plant life, and more.

Have a special spot in the Kawarthas or want to capture the exact view from your cottage dock? Kassil can be booked for custom photo shoots to give customers a one-of-a-kind memory of their favourite places.

Kassil also offers product photography services for small local businesses such as garden centres, and can be booked for photo shoots for rental properties across the Kawarthas.

“Photos are the first thing that people look at when they want to book a rental property and if they don’t like what they see, they’re going to move on,” Kassil says. “You want photos that really show off the beauty of the property.”

Photo shoots can be booked by the hour, or can be done in exchange for a night spent in the accommodation. The latter will give Kassil the chance to capture the property at all times of the day, optimizing the lighting and maybe even capturing the local wildlife. As part of the service, Kassil will post the photos and a review of her favourite aspects of the rental to her social media channels, which will help the listing reach a larger audience.

From July 2 to 31 at The Nutty Bean Café in Lakefield, you can browse and buy a range of Kawartha Kaptures Photography’s summer-themed canvas and framed photos.

Visit kawarthakapturesphotography.myportfolio.com to browse a gallery of photos for sale, and follow Kawartha Kaptures Photography on Instagram and Facebook to see more of Kassil’s work. She can be reached at 905-220-6193 or kawarthakaptures.photography@gmail.com.

Know Your Locals™ is a branded editorial feature about locally owned independent businesses and locally operated organizations, and supported by them. If your business or organization is interested in being featured in a future “Know Your Locals” branded editorial, contact Jeannine Taylor at 705-742-6404 or jt@kawarthanow.com or visit our Advertise with kawarthaNOW page.

On the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, the sun rises in perfect alignment with the Heel Stone and Altar Stone of Stonehenge’s 5,000-year-old circle

Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

In her white shoes, New York-born Nona Faustine walks around her home city. She is visiting once blameless sites – from Prospect Park, to Harlem and Wall Street – which later left legacies of enslavement, horror and resilience.

Faustine has taken more than 40 self-portraits at these sites, currently on show at Brooklyn Museum. Often naked, both vulnerable and powerful, she frames herself against Lower Manhattan’s African Burial Ground or against the slave-owning sites in Brooklyn, in photographs frequently captured by her sister in the early morning, or at weekends when the city is quiet. In her white shoes, the links to colonialism and assimilation are stark in every image.

Titled White Shoes, the series and eponymous exhibition, ‘capture the historical amnesia of New York City, a city much like the rest of the country that has not fully reckoned with its past,’ says Faustine. ‘I am a conduit travelling through space and time, in solidarity with people whose names and memories have been lost but are embedded in the land.’

‘Nona’s presence throughout the White Shoes series centres the project on the experiential engagement of a Black woman artist living in 21st-century New York City,’ says Catherine Morris, Sackler Senior Curator at the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A Sackler Center for Feminist Art. ‘The White Shoes project is a lesson in history (including a lesson about how history is taught, or not taught); it is also a personal rumination on landscape as both an art historical trope and as a site of complex encounters (with places that typically do not share their secrets), and finally, it is a personal exploration on the part of an artist who is brave enough to unapologetically insert her (often nude) body into an indefatigable contemporary city in order to talk about the effects of the past.’

Morris adds: ‘I think Faustine’s use of narrative in the series is actually complex because, while White Shoes is obviously a series and is largely laid out chronologically, the artist has very carefully conceived each photograph as an individual work of art. Each work tells a story about the history of enslavement in the greater New York area. Each photograph stands as a record and as a contemporary acknowledgement of a story that may no longer be visible, or was long hidden, but that has played a part in making the city today what it is. In addition, there is no [single] overall narrative; Faustine has laid the [photographs] out in a specific order, but the viewer can enter the narrative at any given image and follow their own path of interest through the whole.’

‘Nona Faustine: White Shoes’ until 7 July 2024 at Elizabeth A Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th Floor, at Brooklyn Museum

brooklynmuseum.org

Check our round-up for more New York art exhibitions to see this summer

Breakthrough in Mobile Photography
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– Availability and compatibility of accessories and additional software for the StellarCam X1 may vary.

Suggested Related Link: StellarCam

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on February 11, 2022. It has since been updated.

Trigger warning: The article contains images and themes of animal death that readers may find disturbing. 

The death of a beloved pet is no less heartbreaking than the demise of a family member or dear friend. Having had the privilege of experiencing their unconditional love, companionship, and comfort, even the thought of losing this integral part of your life can be hard. While we hope and pray that we never have to experience this crushing pain, there come times when you have to make the difficult decision of letting them go instead of making them suffer unnecessary pain and discomfort. In such cases, the final moments before goodbye bears the weight of a thousand words left unsaid and a yearning to hold on to them in any way possible.

These emotional moments are what photojournalist Ross Taylor captured in his “Last Moments” series. Taylor, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, photographed the intimate and heartbreaking moments between a pet and their owners in the seconds leading up to the animal’s death by euthanasia at home.

“My interest in this originated a few years back. A friend of mine at the time was going through intense grief over the pending death of her dog, who was very sick. Because she didn’t want the dog to be stressed by a visit to the clinic, she decided to have her pet euthanized at home. I had not heard of this, but was very moved by the idea,” he told Upworthy.

“Driven by this, I began researching it and reached out to a number of veterinary organizations. The first that responded was Lap of Love [a family-centered veterinary hospice and in-home animal euthanasia service] and within a month or so of contact, I began working with them,” added Taylor, who has been a photojournalist for over 20 years.

“We would contact families ahead of time to see who would be open to sharing their story with me – I only photographed those who were willing. I also offered each family the option of doing a portrait of them with their dog before their passing, as a tribute to them, if they wanted. It’s important to note that none of this could be done without the families allowing me to be there. They have my respect.”

“I think it’s important for people who are going through this process to know they’re not alone, that their grief should not be overlooked, nor minimized by others,” he explained. “It’s real, and it’s painful. I hope people, after seeing these images, will never say to someone else after they lost a pet, “Oh it’s just a dog, or, it’s just a cat.” It’s crucial to recognize, and respect, the pain that comes along with the loss of a pet.”

When asked how witnessing such grief and testaments to the undeniable bonds between humans and their animal companions has affected him personally, Taylor said: “In every possible way that I could have imagined. It’s been one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever documented. In almost every case, everyone was moved to tears, including me. I feel so sad for those going through this and my heart is more open to the grief that people feel.”

“My respect for veterinarians who work with end-of-life care has grown immensely. They’re impressive people and are some of the kindest I’ve met. The work they do is important,” he continued. “Also, the amount of people who have responded has been overwhelming. Scores of people have written to me, wanting to share their story. I’ve had some of the most touching emails and in fact, I just got a note the other day from someone who lost their cat. They sent me pictures of their last moments together. It was quite moving.”

Westminster’s photographers: a politician’s best friend or worst enemy? – POLITICO

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