My Summer Lair Chapter #228: It’s Gotta Be The Shoes…Right?

So: as a science fiction fan I enjoy photography.

Because photography exists at different times exactly like a time traveler.

A photo is taken in the present but the photo is viewed in the future so often the viewer is looking at the past. And it’s only when we look at the past—sadly we can only document the past obviously we can’t document the future I think—that we must make choices. We can’t document everything.

Thus knowing we can document the past the question then becomes what do we document?

Enter Henry VanderSpek AKA Culture Snap Photography and when it comes to documenting his photography subject matter is Old World Shoes.

His latest photography exhibition recognizes some of the talented individuals behind the shoes. Old World Shoes profiles individuals and owners of independent shoe and shoe repair businesses in Toronto.

Armed with a camera and an open heart Henry visited several shoe stores talking to shoemakers about their craft, about their customers and sometimes about the future. In the exhibition hosted at the Daniels Spectrum art gallery in Regent Park you can see photography testaments and videos to cobblers, to a rare and unique skill set and the strange environments where these creative individuals bloom.

Old World Shoes is lively: it is a compelling photo exhibition that celebrates Toronto, a city powerfully populated with immigrants and hustlers, talented individuals who have dedicated themselves to their craft. And among the crafty ones is Henry.

From Jamal Shabazz to Arnold Schwarzenegger to finding your vision to honouring his Dutch heritage with all those bicycles, this My Summer Lair episode is as comfortable as an old shoe.

Culture Snap Photography @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Friday November 26, 2021 at 11:30am (EST)

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The intimate art of Michael Stipe – in pictures

A dope photo of moi from yesterday’s entertainment slash social experiment via fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company.

For lunch I decided to get cultured (it happens occasionally…don’t tell anybody or else my street rep will be ruined…) and went to the Art Gallery of Ontario. They’re currently hosting Illusions: The Art Of Magic so I’m brown and down with that.

My Summer Lair Chapter #121: As In Photography As In Life…Follow The Light. So What’s It Like To Follow The Light?

Listening to legendary photographer Jamel Shabazz speak it’s clear he deftly fulfills Jenny Holzer profoundly popular truism: “Use what is dominant in a culture to change it quickly.”

By picking up his camera daily and, in his words, “documenting the world around him”, Jamel is known for the culture he created and influenced as much as that culture influenced him.

Whenever a celebrity perishes there’s a lazy reduction by the media and (worse) by the fans that naturally occurs. We endured this when Prince passed away: it’s difficult to articulate in a meaningful way what Prince contributed to music and ultimately what his legacy is and will continue to be as time slowly unfolds.

Similarly Jamel Shabazz’s legacy is unique because it is divided into two significant works.

There’s the photographs he’s known for…the photographs have effectively established his platform while simultaneously functioning as icebreakers for him to start significant conversations with his subjects.

Those conversations are his additional legacy…and probably his greatest work. When that sad day comes and he’s no longer with us we’ll have the photos: we’ll always have the photos. But we’ll also always have the ripple effects of those conversations that he initiated because they’ve changed people. What was destroyed in the dark has been restored in the light.

Jamel has heavily invested in people and the ROI for those potent conversations is the changes love has sown. Like Prince’s musical legacy it is difficult to articulate in a meaningful way just it’s so obvious.

We just don’t have artists like this anymore. Conscientious and meticulous with a deep intentionality. As much as it inspiring it’s also distressing because this is how we used to be. Perhaps some time when the pendulum swings back as it often always does this is who we can become again.

As always we are faced with two roads and its remains up to us to take the Robert Frost less traveled road. Because as Jamel Shabazz can testify it makes all the difference.

Jamel Shabazz @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Photography by Henry VanderSpek aka Culture Snap Photography

Recorded: Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 11:30am (EST) in his Long Island Studio

On May 4, 2012 we lost Adam Yauch AKA MCA. That’s cold: Death taking one of the Beastie Boys. A significant loss to hip hop, music, movies and most importantly shenanigans. Happily horseplay was quickly restored on May 3, 2013 when Palmetto Playground in Brooklyn was renamed the Adam Yauch Park.

I dunno why…this photo reminds me of Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album cover. Think it’s the light…I dunno.