David Sorcher's PhotoWorld: January 2019

We had a beautiful day Saturday, before all the yuk moved in today, so i dropped by Risser's Beach again on my way home from the market to enjoy the calm before the storm.
If you have followed my work closely you may have noticed that i have done a bit of work in Polyptychs format, where two or more separate images are arranged in sequence to form a single piece. Sometimes i pre-visualize these final images while shooting, but more often than not i match them up in post during the editing process, though always from the same shooting session.
As i viewed the day's shoot in the browser certain couplets became apparent to me. Sometimes i find triptychs, but this bunch of images kept revealing couples, or diptychs.
It's hard to say exactly what brings more than one photo together for a mating like this, but there must be something that allows me to conceptually link one image to another to create a satisfying whole in my mind. Sometimes it is repeating form or color, sometimes it is visual lines that connect between the images. Sometimes it can be can be sequential moments in time or simply complementary viewpoints on a single subject. For me it is also important that the individual images are capable of standing on their own, but are hopefully enhanced in combination, creating a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

(Please click on images for an enlarged gallery view. These will be more impactful by increased size.)

Risser's Beach; Nova Scotia; Sand;Rock; Shells

Risser's Beach; Nova Scotia; Shells; Rock; Barnacles

Risser's Beach; Nova Scotia; Sand; Rock; Ice

All Photos ©David Sorcher 2019

It would be an understatement to say that 2018 has been a year of great transitions for me. It began in Cincinnati, OH, where i had lived for the past 20 years and ended with a rather radical life change -the realization of our long-awaited emigration to rural Nova Scotia. This was obviously a colossal move for me, not just physically, but emotionally as well. I have left the country of my birth to hopefully live the rest of my life as a Canadian. In doing i left a nice home, great friends and a reasonably steady freelance clientele for the Maritimes lifestyle. I suppose i must think this place is really something special, eh? Well i guess i do. Now don't let me down, Nova Scotia. LOL!

(please click on images for and enlarged gallery view)

So i guess i fibbed just a bit before, because 2018 really began for me in NYC, my actual city of origin. While there visiting friends and family i was testing out my new Fuji XT2 mirrorless camera. Though i loved the image quality, other aspects of the camera operation led me to abandon Fuji for the new Nikon full-frame Z6 by the time the wheel of the year had fully turned. Still, these two images are keepers for me.

Pinball Wizard

City Hall Pigeons

Women's marches were taking place all over the country on January 20th, and Cincinnati was no exception. It was a great political punctuation to the opening of the midterm election year and these voices would indeed be heard. You can explore more HERE if you would like to explore more.

I travelled back to NYC for a week to do a commercial shoot for the Grandaisy Bakery and found a black & white photo essay in it for myself.

I had an opportunity to shoot Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown at Paul Brown Stadium for a Cincy Magazine cover story. After sitting in on the interview for about an hour shooting stealthy candids i finally was allowed 5 minutes of the subject's full attention.

After 34 years The Dock, Cincinnati's historic nightclub for the LGBT community, closed its doors for good, presenting its very last Drag Show on Valentine's Day.

The Ohio River flooded in February, causing millions in damage, but delighting the Canada geese.

If you have spent any time in Cincinnati you probably have come to love Bockfest. I mean, who doesn't love Bock Beer and parading in the streets?

Two things coincide with the Bockfest season. The Sausage Queen & Beard Baron finals. Nobody in Cincinnati finds this weird by the way. One of the Beard Barons shows his excitement as he wins victory in his category.

And the Sausage Queen this year turned out to be a guy...

...nobody in Cincinnati finds that weird either. 😎

As usual there were some great shows to shoot last year, though i certainly photographed less live music than in years previous. I have been lamenting that i will not get too many opportunities to shoot big name acts anymore, as very few touring bands ever make their way to the Maritimes. And we thought Cincinnati was a fly-over town. Though i have already shot some music up here, and frankly the fame of the artist is not a necessary criteria for good music photography in my book. Many of my favorite shots in years past have been of unknown local artists.

Early in the year i got a chance to shoot Richard Marx. I was a bit embarrassed that i had not really heard of this guy before, but then i really wasn't listening to much radio in the 1980s.

I shot another radio-hit legend, KC & the Sunshine Band, who put on a fun and energetic stage show.

Country singer Jake Owen provided musical entertainment at the 25th anniversary Pure Romance World Conference at the Duke Energy Convention Center in April.

Anthrax brought some hard-hitting Metal to Riverbend Music Center, along with Lamb of God, as openers for the final Slayer Tour.

And i had one more opportunity to shoot my all-time favorite live Rock 'n' Roll act, Alice Cooper. Sorry, kids, at 70 Alice is still kickin' your asses!

I'm a big fan of Frank Black, so the Pixies was kind of a bucket list act for me.

I also had a second go at Weezer who played the same bill as the Pixies.

Oh yeah, and did i mention the final Slayer tour?

I loved creating light wings on this hoop dancer at the BeWILDERfest in Northside.

Outside the concert venues i got to shoot another Garage Brewed Motorcyle Show at Rhinegeist Brewery and captured Jerry "Howling Jer" McGinty with his latest garage creation.

Twenty years in Cincinnati and i didn't know that they did Soap Box Derby there, so i was really excited about shooting it for the Enquirer. I hope i might have captured some quintessential boyhood in this image.

A young man watches the 41st Annual Delhi Skirt Game from behind the backstop fence.

This charity drag softball event was...well, pretty much what one might expect i suppose. 😉

Cincinnati's Gay Pride Parade is always a fantastic time and photo opportunity.

Fifty West Brewing's Punch Out: Round Three gave me another chance to shoot some boxing. Amateur fighters from breweries all around town fight for beer and glory. If you ask me, the women's division was the toughest. Note the bloodied face on the left.

I already know what the best time to visit friends in Cincinnati will be. The Fourth of July festivities features the Northside Rock 'n' Roll Carnival AND the fabulous Northside Forth of July Parade.

And thank goodness i discovered DangerWheel before i left the Queen City. Heats of two adult drivers, careening down a steep city hill on giant Big Wheels with no brakes encountering the occasional jumping ramp while trying to avoid being struck by a sideline crowd who are whipping water balloons at full velocity towards their heads. Um...alcohol may also be involved.

This may have been the most fun i had all year event shooting.

Thursday nights in the summer season in Cincinnati are for Salsa Dancing on Fountain Square.

One of the very last jobs i shot before leaving Cincinnati was for Buzzfeed. I spent three days with two of their writers shooting fun and hip places to eat and explore around town. It was a great way to culminate my 20 year career in Cincy as it sort of summed up my photographic experiences with this adopted city that i had come to love and call home.

Tarak Bahani of Bouchard's Fresh Pasta in Findlay Market creates a gourmet past dish for a customer.

Now i had thought i would make some kind of serious effort to document the great and arduous journey from Cincinnati, Ohio to Petite Rivière, Nova Scotia, but i gotta tell ya folks, that just didn't happen. With the marathon house packing, the intensive three days of driving (14 hrs., 13 hrs. and finally 9 hrs.), the complete lack of sleep, it was all i could do to keep the car of the road. I do have a few iPhone pics, but i won't bore you here.

But i'm here now Nova Scotia, so let's just see what we can make of it. 😐

With my permanent residency in order i was fortunate to be able to jump right in with some freelance work for a local South Shore weekly, LighthouseNOW Bulletin. While this work isn't enough to provide three squares a day it still feels good just to have found any work right away. The market is certainly smaller up here, and the pay is even lower, so i will have to expand my media outlet base for sure (as well as explore some other avenues for selling my work). No, i won't be needing resolutions to spur me toward finding additional opportunities in the new year. It will simply be a matter of survival.

My first job for LighthouseNOW was a fun one and right up my alley. A Kayak Flotilla in Mahone Bay was protesting offshore BP oil rigs. I have always been interested in documenting people in protest. Instead of shooting this one from the shoreline i made sure to secure a front seat in a two-person kayak and took to the water with the pack.

Of course i really moved to Nova Scotia for the sake of my soul, not my pocketbook. My ideal job would simply allow me to wander the shorelines and forests of the province photographing whatever beauty or splendor i stumbled upon, but i'm not expecting the a callback interview anytime soon. I do realize that the markets for this kind of work are rarely very lucrative. That won't stop me, of course, from dreaming of coffee table book deals and seeking gallery representation in the coming year.

There will always be work that i do whether it ever turns me a penny or not and it will always be the most important photography i do. The simple art of seeing and interpreting the world around me and trying to make sense of it through my lens and vision is more a calling than a commodity. It is an imperative act, like breathing.

I am fortunate to have been granted this time and space to do more personal work these last three months of year. Again, this is the work that feeds the soul, right, though that little voice in the back of my head is always there to remind me that i must still feed the stomach as well. I've been lucky enough to land a few gigs for the Bulletin that provided both interesting stories and good visual opportunities that have allowed me to make strong and satisfying images.

Remembrance Day has been my favorite journalistic endeavour since arriving in the province. Here are a few from the ceremonies, but check the hyperlink to the blog post for more of my personal take on the day.

I am still trying to find those musical opportunities up here. I was sent to shoot Tim Hicks, but opener Madeline Merlo provided my favorite shot of the evening.

Country music fan “Cowboy” Cash Strowbridge, 7, sings along from atop the barricade as Tim Hicks performs on stage.

I am loving the cultural diversity to be found on the South Shore. I went to the Diwali Festival in Bridgewater and captured Amrita Hazra for the cover of the Bulletin as she performed a Hindu dance.

A young girl is caught in festival lighting.

Firefighter Colby Rafuse stands watch with the rest of his crew over the marshmallow fires during the annual Lunenburg Lighting of the Vessels.

That's about it for income earning photography for the year. What follows are more of my photographic journals of my initial days as a Nova Scotian encountering and documenting this place for the first time as a resident and exploring my local environment, its people and its beautiful raw nature on a daily basis.