For me the notebook shots worked. Not because they added to the story, as your statement described it, but because they show your personal relationship to the work. These photos are clearly part of you and your reflections on your hometown and the notes reaffirm that for me. I wonder how different this story would have been if you had done it before the economic crisis. These images seem to be reflections of a deeply seeded relationship to a place more than a story. It almost feels as if the economic crisis is simply a convenient template that fit into your preconceived relationship to your hometown.

I really enjoyed it…

I’ve taken a few days to vist and revist my thoughts on the essay. Overall, I like the images and the photography employed. Ironically, what I have resorted to come back and post this morning is similar to the previous comment from Rafal (honestly – It is my thoughts rather than copying Rafal). For me the images work but the text doesn’t. Or at least I don’t think the set completely achieves your mission as outlined in the text. For me I come to burn magazine for the photography rather than the prose So if that’s the only critical comment that I can muster then you must be doing a good job from my perspective. Personally a little more contrast in some of the images but thats being nit picky and more personal preference. I have a personal project running about my hometown which will run for quite some time to come and you certainly have given an approach for me to contemplate.

Regards.

I like the photography but not the statement. I really don’t see much about what you write, the poverty and gangs. I see a quiet, reflective essay with some beautiful photography.

How I wish I could have seen your exhibit at the Toronto Contact Festival because I feel the use of journal sketches and writings interspersed with the photos would have made for a powerful presentation. I’m afraid that online publishing like we see here on Burn does not serve such a presentation well at all. The photos of the journal pages intrigue and frustrate me. I love that you use this process to create an essay but I am curious enough that I want to see and read the journal pages for myself.

I find your way of piecing images together to be fascinating. It speaks of the disjointedness of what we see and how we try to make sense of things that often make no sense at all. To me it is much more interesting than panoramic shots. But that’s just my taste.

Congratulations on the recognition that is coming your way. You deserve it. I look forward to following your work in the future.

Patricia

Very proud to see some great Canadian content here on Burn. I also live in Toronto. Would love to catch up with you sometime (frank@frankmichael.net). I really enjoyed the images and the technique employed. I think as image makers we struggle to fit the prose with with our visual intent and we can easily run into problems as has been echoed in many of the comments. As with other work posted on Burn I think this lends itself more to a gallery exhibition where one to can take the time and inspect up-close to feel the full impact of the notebooks and the images. I think some of the struggle here on Burn is a debate between vernacular photography vs fine art photography. The boundaries are often blurred and make interpretation and critique challenging. As Burn is ‘evolving’ I guess this will play out over time and the critique which ever way it leans adds to this evolution. I enjoy strong images that say something to me. That is my main criteria in critique, but others may have a different lens through which they view the essays here. I struggle sometimes too with how to interpret some of the essays. I have some difficulty with overly contrived work especially if it leaves me feeling confused and empty without a clear focus, but this is not the case in your series here. I think if I were to look at the essay without having read the intro I would have enjoyed it much more.

All the best,

Frank

For me, the heart of this work are the pictures of the houses and land. And with the words of BobBlack…,

“this essay is a lamentation, a ruminative walk, Mike’s walk, around his hometown of Oshawa, a town that is essentially built upon and dependent upon the jobs and money from the automotive industry. Over the last few years, the town has literally transformed into a down more haunted than thriving. And that is really what is at play here: a haunting. Like Sebald’s book “Rings of Saturn”, Hometown is really a somnambulent walk, a memory of so much that is deeply personal to him that has been transformed and left behind.”

…there is a good statement. I feel it is more meaningful (I’d like to say accurate) than the words of the photographer himself. I found the photographer’s words incongruent with the work as though one was being forced to fit the other. The statement does not fit the work and the work does not match the statement. Perhaps the explanation for that is in what sacco has to say.

as for the issue with reportage, many factory jobs have been lost but not just in oshawa. oshawa employs many in the auto sector but there are also hundreds of third party job losses related to this as well. this effects manufacturing, shipping and sales of parts and cars. so in short this has not just spread throughout oshawa but it has spread through surrounding areas as well in great numbers.

i see that some people have raised issue with the narrative, stating that perhaps it is not obvious what the essay is about. maybe. but is that to it’s detriment? i can’t speak for others, but i have no desire to be told what to think about what i’m seeing. this essay made me put myself into these places, to tie my own experiences to it.

you even state in your blurb “Photography is a personal experience through which i choose to express views on the world.” i believe that this is how you see your hometown, and your feelings are very apparent in the images. i wouldn’t say you had failed.

congrats on the publication and the exhibitions too. keep up the good work

First of all, I had a feeling, that the images in colours where disturbing. Not that they where bad, they just visually do not fit into the overall feeling of the essay. They are too saturated and contrasty. For that reason I went to the website and as expected, this was a combination of three different essays – ´Foreclosure´, ´Downturn´ and ´Hometown´ – and then the notebooks.

Where ‘Hometown’ and ‘foreclosure’ works together, I feel ‘Downturn’ works against. This is a question of editing. ‘Downturn’ could in my eyes work fine for itself.

Second. As Milan Kundera writes in his book “The unbearable lightness of being” repetition is what gives weight to life and events – the main character in the book. Thomas, has favorite quote, which is as well one of my favorite quotes: “Einmal ist keinmal”. I feel that this is as well true for photographic essays – pictures need to be repeated. But it is a language and to build a strong sentence, a strong argument, a strong essay, there need to be several blocks of meaning, images or words, reinforcing each other.
You state that this is ongoing work. I would like to see a more “blocks of meaning”. Hereby not saying, that what I see is bad, because I don´t think so, but I do not feel it is finished.

Third. I like the pairing of the images as a visual trick, but right now it feels mostly as a visual trick. Nothing wrong with that. But it seems to me, that there is a possibility of making it into a point, that says something about your subject. I think you could work with that.

As for the notebooks. I cannot read your handwriting, but I cannot even read my own. Well, to make an opinion on these images I need to know the content of the notebooks. I should try to decipher the writing ones again

Well, finally. It is promising, indeed. Strong ambience.

Cheers

Morten

I like some of these dark, sordid images that set a mood, but if the goal is to tell a story then I would have liked to see the photographer get close to people who are feeling the economic crunch, ie. blank stares etc.

I really like the Africa work on his site. I guess what I’m saying is to incorporate some of the style from Africa into this project.

apart from that, i just found this essay frustrating – in some instances it feels like some great photographs ruined by a strange collage device. why do that to strong photographs? maybe i am just too much of a traditionalist.

the commentary from sacco bothers me as well.