Negin Mirriahi from UBC arts presenting me with the iPad that I won last friday for a UBC Arts faculty photography competition with the them “What is Learning?” My entry was selected by 4 UBC judges out of around 50 entries.
And a photo of Me giving Mary a small print. - She was a great help with and deserves a lot of credit for jumping into that cold water whilst looking serene and studious on the first (and only) take. Also I have to thank parker for coming down to help as well!
I was really happy to win the first photography competition i’ve entered - Thank you guys!
The eatART mondospider crew was sponsored to go to a national science and engineering fair in Washington D.C.
Seeing kids (and some adults) react to the mondospider is always a blast.
We met some really great D.Cers who showed us some great hospitality. The road crew had some mechanical trouble while towing the spider back to base on the west coast but they arrived yesterday in good spirits nonetheless.
http://www.mondospider.com/blog/
(Source: peterholmes.viewbook.com)
I don’t speak German, so I don’t know what they were looking for. But I think my friend pointed them in the right direction.
I like this for a number of reasons; but mainly because they very nearly walked right on by. When travelling its tempting to get into self-reliant mode and find your own way no matter what - but it’s often easier and nicer to simply ask someone and be on your way with a thank you and a smile.
East Berlin - I met up with a german friend and we biked around for 3 days. She was very nice about taking the time to show me around her favorite spots and some historic sites.
The faint white gray photo is a public art piece near the east berlin gates. It is a glass window on the ground that allows you to look into a empty white room lined with empty white bookshelves. It pays homage to the book burnings and the destruction of free thought in the GDR
The Port of Antwerp, Belgium. The second largest port in Europe, after Rotterdam.
The port was vacant as it was a bank holiday.
I spent a few hours biking around and looking.
Las Fallas Festival en Valencia, España
©peterholmesphotography.com
The Fires of the Fallas
Once a year for two weeks the streets of Valencia come alive with processions, dancing, and the sound of music and frequent firecrackers. There’s not very much sleeping going on during this festival, which originally marked St. Joesph’s day in the mid 1850s but the Valencians and tourists, who number in the hundreds of thousands, don’t seem to mind this lack of sleep. There is so much to keep you eyes and ears busy that its easy to forget about regular things such as eating and sleeping. When you’ve just lit a firecracker or see one nearby about to explode your regular worries and cares get the volume turned down and you cover your ears or turn you back.
Perhaps this is why the festival has survived for so long despite that it started out with the disapproval of the ruling classes. The working carpenters of the day would get together and build ninots (dolls) which were often effigies of local people of importance. At the end of the festivities each neighborhood got together and tossed the ninots onto the Fallas and watch them burn.
Over the years the festival grew in popularity to the dismay of the elite and the church. In 1851 the Fallas where banned altogether do the the increasingly satirical and lewd nature of some of the sculpture, which often illustrated social taboos or the personal faults of the local leadership in a tongue in cheek style similar to todays editorial cartoons.
Valencians took to the streets to protest the ban and the Fallas were reinstated the following year. Shortly after a prize for the best sculpture was awarded and the competition has spurred increasingly elaborate designs. Teams of people work year round to design and build each large sculpture and in the center there is one almost every street corner, around 370 large sculptures and 370 smaller ones. The are traditionally made of wood, paper mache and wax but are most large ones are now made of polyurethane. This allows them to be much more intricately designed and larger (upwards of 30 meters high) but also highly toxic. Yet no one seems too concerned about the detrimental environmental effects.
Although the Fallas has changed dramatically and has financial and institutional support from the Town hall and large corporate sponsorship it still remains a very inclusive festival. Over 10,000 Valencians participate in the processions and almost every neighborhood gets involved making this festival truly bottom up rather than top down. Despite the general mayhem Valencians remainmuy simpatica (very friendly) and eager to help someone who is lost or give firecrackers to wary foreigners.
- opening night at the toast collective of se souvenir de vancouver (to remember vancouver)
a series regarding the souvenirization of human memory.
article about the series:
http://ubyssey.ca/culture/?p=10917
pinhole photographs and artist statement here -
peterholmes.viewbook.com/
email
peter@peterholmesphotography.com for more on the project or to see about getting a print
this video
composite of just over 1000 pinhole lens photographs timelapsed at 15 seconds throughout the night.
Music:
wire by the clips
theclips.ca/
areyoufamiliar.com/
http://www.toast-collective.com/
*thanks again to vanessa, parker, alex, adrian, leigh, edo, rob, and everyone for coming to my first solo show.
-ph
My first conceptual series of 8 photographs concerning the souvenirization of human experience.
