documentographer » life photographer

Have you noticed how heavily the word ‘Diva’ is being used nowadays? It’s all over the place, up there with ‘Green’ and ‘Documentographer’. (tee hee)
Sometimes it’s annoying because Diva is such a special word, and should be used with care. So, I’m always pleasantly surprised when someone actually fits that bill. And Julie Nesrallah most certainly does.

She’s an outstanding opera singer. Opera with edge. As she describes it, if Carmen was alive today, she’d be her. Well, ladies and gentlemen, she’s here today, and you’d best keep your eye out for her. She is changing the face of opera, and just might go down in history as the Diva that she is.

This is one woman who owns that word.

Special thanks to Maureen Greenstein for her amazing amazing make-up job.
(If any brides-to-be are reading this, I recommend you contact this woman for your make-up. woah!)

Presenting, the first ever integrated prom for this highschool in Charleston, Mississippi!

(For more background on this story, click here.)

Can you believe this is real?

Want to know more about what’s going on here? Click here

Prom dance pictures tomorrow…

Inside this tiny building, about the size of a small kitchen, lived a hair salon.

Last Saturday it was jam-packed full of women waiting for their chance with the hairdresser. Most of them teenagers, waiting to get their hair styled for their prom.

As I mentioned in my last post, for the first time in this small Mississippi town, the highschool was having their first integrated prom.

So, even though they went to different hair salons, the white students were also getting ready. They same way. With hair salons and car washes.

More to come tomorrow to see portraits of the kids in front of their houses, before they headed off to this historical event…

…so I’ll have to show ya.

Here is a couple photographed at midnight at Walmart, in Mississippi, after their senior prom. This Walmart is open 24-hours, which makes it a perfectly good place to go for an after-party. It’s tradition. It’s the place to be.

If you think this is strange, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Stranger, and harder to believe, this was the first time this highschool had an integrated prom. Before now, the blacks had a black prom, and the whites had a white prom. Can you believe it?!

Filmmaker Paul Saltzman discovered this archaic and astounding factoid and went to Mississippi to see what and why on earth this kind of thing is still going on.

With Morgan Freeman offering to pay for this school’s first integrated prom in his hometown, things were finally going to change. Or that was the idea, anyway…

Over the weekend, a group of film crew met with the kids Paul has been following for months for his upcoming documentary “Prom Night in Mississippi”, and followed them for the weekend. I had the good fortune of following them with my camera, and learning about racism, opportunity, and poverty, in America’s deep South.

I will post photos from this weekend over the next week. Tune back in — it’s not often you get to go to the first integrated prom in a small small town, with teenagers from Mississippi!

I feel like every post I am coming up with more and more explanations for why I love my job. Maybe that should be the name of my blog. That would be a bit much though, wouldn’t it? I’ll just title my post like that this time, and get it out of my system!

The wedding this past weekend was reason #574,859 for why my job is so great. Every time I go to photograph, I am taken with the thrill of just never knowing what will come up. Sure, you can guess and expect, but ultimately, the powers that be take over.

On Saturday, what I got was a window into the lives of two Armenian families, and their wedding celebrations. What a special opportunity for me.

The whole day was jam-packed full of dancing, songs, and a variety of Armenian customs. The ceremony, completely in Armenian, consisted of 3 hooded-priests and the bride and groom forehead-to-forehead almost the entire time. I don’t know what the Priest was saying, but it was intense, and the union, sacred.

Thank you Ararad and Houry for sharing your day with me! And thank you to Jen Arron and Danijela Pruginic for their fantastic photos.

Click on the collage to see a larger version.

If you haven’t heard about the Timeraiser, you’d better listen up. It’s just not to be unknown about.

Picture a silent art auction. But instead of bidding on the art for money, you bid volunteer hours.

Now wait, it’s so much cooler than that.

Say you want to volunteer, but you never know where to go, or what kind of skills you could match yourself up with. At this event, a whole slew of organizations have booths set up to answer your questions. You can mingle and ’shop around’ and find the right fit for you.

Then, you place your bid of volunteer hours on the art you want, and when you complete your hours, you get the art!

Here. Go here if this sounds confusing. They explain it better than me. (The pics on the slideshow are taken by yours truly from last year).

If you would rather just mingle with other attendees at the party, pretty much anyone you talk to is interesting, fun and interesting. What can I say? A volunteer party is going to attract interesting, fun and interesting.

It really is the best event in town.

Tomorrow night, 7pm.
The Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery District.
Register first, don’t just show at the door.

Other than puffing up this party’s ego, I wanted to share some of the portraits I have taken of participants in the Timeraiser. Myself and two other fabulous photogs have been wearing down the pavement in this city, getting pictures of volunteers, agencies and artists who are currently participating.

Here are my favs from the ones I took:

CONTACT PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL (agency)

MEAL EXCHANGE (agency)

FUTURE POSSIBILITY FOR KIDS (agency)

LUMINATO

KEVIN McBRIDE (artist)

Such great great people.

See you tomorrow!

I knew journalism school was good for something. Just kidding, it was good for lots of experiences, opportunities and employment. However, thanks to my time there, I got to meet Ann Rauhala, and begin to take photos for a book she was creating about adopting Chinese babies.

Here’s Ann:

And here’s the book, fresh off the press:

This month, five years in the making from concept to concrete, “The Lucky Ones” book is hitting the shelves. And it is really GOOD!
22 authors, writers and journalists write about their amazing and diverse experiences about adopting their children from China. Writers include iconic Canadian names such as Susan Olding, Sonja Smits, Havard Gould, Patricia Hluchy and many more, including a forward by Jan Wong. Some stories will make you smile and laugh out loud. Others will make you shake your head in disbelief.

I feel fortunate about being able to meet so many of these families, and take some portraits to represent their lives together. Here is a collection of the pics I took. Some in the book, some out-takes from the printed selections.

If you are interested in purchasing this book, it is $19.95 and available at any major bookstore. As well, proceeds from the book will go to FCC-Toronto’s charitable fund and Children’s Bridge charitable fund, both of which direct money to orphanage kids.