Enjoying the Fairy-Tale Series..

 Really enjoying shooting the Fairy-Tale series. I  am so grateful to have such wonderful models  to work with .

Fuck-you rich -white-guy-child-expert...

Okay.When you home-school your kid ,it's normal to read a bunch of books about how to do it right.There are about a billion theories .Just like there are about a billion theories on how to raise your kid without fucking them up.
So I have read at least a dozen books on both topics.Some of them were okay.Mostly they are boring.
For anyone who gives a shit the partial list includes : AS.Neill , Korczak, Harwood, Steiner, Freire ,Edward de Bono , Rousseau ,Neufeld ,Wise-Bauer ...and a bunch of alt-lifestyle type things.
Well..I don't fit into any particular camp.All these thinkers have some of it right.Just like all of us.We all have some of it right.So what I want to know is this : Why is it usually rich white guys that want to tell us how to raise our kids ?Black guys don't run around writing books about how woman should raise their kids..
Hell , most of these guys are doctors.That means that they were at work . A lot. Not home doing the gig they love to write about.
Anyhow..every generation has it's rich -white-guy-child-expert that mothers can't live without.I think Spock informed my mother's generation.And A.S. Neill informed and misguided my grandmother...
None of these guys raised kids 24/7.     If  they did ,they wouldn't have so much to say on the topic.

P.O.V.

I suppose  it doesn't matter if the work is commercial or artistic.We are who we are to a huge degree.
 I  find it interesting to see the threads of continuity that link my work...Or maybe I am just obsessed with the same  stuff after all these years.

American Express then..now I make Art

Gina-Rae Horvath /photography

Here are a couple of shots from the Amex campaign I did several years ago.What a lot of fun .We shot for three days straight to get everything we needed.Some of it was shot on location at a cafe I used to eat at regularly.Some of it was studio..and the rest was on the street.Great models, great team.This was when Sabu was still agreeing to be my first assistant for special jobs. He was the best ever.Now he's operating a multi-discipline photography/visual/creative studio in Toronto.

Life is like creativity , it's  all about change and growth.It's so much fun to be sifting through my commercial work .After five years of slugging it out building a house , we are finally unpacking some of my studio stuff.

It is interesting to me how much my commercial work informs my personal work.I never would have admitted that at one time.It used to be uncool to admit that one's commercial work had an impact on your art.

 It's  impossible to "un-do" what commercial photography does to a person. But that's okay. It trains the eye. It makes you get up in the morning. It forces you to work hard. It makes you take pictures of concepts that are not all about you.You have to get technically good.

Ego is not something that survives very well in a commercial environment .Everyone has talent.Not just you.

When a job happens ,it happens with at least half a dozen talented people working hard .These people are valuable team members.There is no such thing as a commercial shooter who works alone.We learn that we are not fucking special .

This is interesting to me as I work away on my personal project here on Hornby Island.I am blessed with co-operative models,beautiful locations and amazing light.It's a lot quieter here than my studio ever was.(smile)

I enjoy what I am doing now .Being an artist is great fun.Uncovering these images though has given me a new appreciation for the methodical process that I apply to all my work.

Thank-you Toronto for the training.It was a hoot.

Now I make art. (more smiles )

Ottilie Mason..Multi-Talented

Wow am I fortunate. I get to   work with so many interesting and talented people.This is probably one of my earliest "Fairy-Tale " style images. Ottilie Mason is both  the model , and  costume designer.We both  had studios  in the same building for several years  in Toronto.We got to enjoy  Carlaw Avenue before it became gentrified .Her studio was a  combination of sophisticated Bohemian chic ,Indian textures ,with modern art everywhere.And beautiful food was always being prepared.At that time she was operating a very hot catering company ,servicing the film and photography industries mostly.The kitchen was a massive but earthy set-up.All the spices were in big clear  jars on huge open shelves.The cooking utensils were crafted beauties from little India, just  up the road.I had never seen such unusual long handled wooden utensils  .The colors and smells were intoxicating.I loved that place.

Ottilie always shared the left-over food with her artist community.We ate very well for starving artists.

Her style , her food, and Art  were ahead of their time. .Check out www.Ottilie.ca

 She is still at the forefront.

Who's Educating Who ?

Tried to shoot some images today.Nothing looked particularly good..Lack of  focus today.

Somehow I am not expertly blending homeschooling and my own work .Early September struggles.

The Girl woke up at 6:00 am and did math .She has mind focus. After three cups of coffee I attempted to work...meh..Stayed grouchy too.That happens when our work stinks.

Tomorrow is another day.

And who's educating who here ?

Learning Rapunzel was an Idiot and Commerce too..

Homeschooling begins again .Another year of learning , creativity and observation .
When our girl quit school, at 8, we were concerned about our ability to deliver a quality education .
Now that we are a few years into it , that concern has lifted. In retrospect , I was concerned about her education  when she was inside the school system...
Anyhow ,we are happier than I imagined we would be.I thought the process would be a bit of a logistical nightmare..fitting it all in.Learning what needed to be learned.Finding that precious balance where life and learning merge.Where art and creativity co-exist.Math and science are not ignored...not pretending walks on the beach  count as science class.That sort of thing.It is a challenge to educate your own child.
There is a temptation to grab onto the curriculum and not let go.Except that the existing curriculum is just not that interesting.Part of what I do is read the ministries " learning outcomes " , then boil it down to the main and hopefully interesting points.From there, we flesh it out in a way that suits our girl , and our family.Whew.
After some experimentation , we have discovered that to cover the three R's properly , we need to sit down at the table and hit the books old school.
The "un-schooly" approach does not work for us at all...For the uninitiated "un-schooling" is a dearly loved philosophy among many home-schoolers.We just don't get it over here.Looks too much like slacking to us I guess.
We are not too hard-core though.If you read "The Well Trained Mind " by Susan Wise Bauer , it would seem apparent that we are as slack-ass as a family could be.Hell , our kid is not even studying Latin yet.And she's already ten.
Somehow we want to deliver something of quality and beauty.Poetry and music figure into this picture somehow.Yet it is necessary to understand math , commerce ,and that Rapunzel was an idiot.
We are doing our best.So far she is happy , and so are we.
Wish us luck as we begin another school year.