DJ Neil Armstrong Live on the decks @ 'the SD' in Bonnaroo '11 & Wiz Khalifa Live @ Bonnaroo 2011 - brought to you by 'the AM crew'

Wiz Khalifa Live @ Bonnaroo 2011 - brought to you by 'the AM crew'

Published in 'ASMP Magazine' Fall 2010 USA

The 'American Society of Media Photographers' Magazine is featuring the 'Young Photographers Alliance' Mentoring Program Projects, on this year's theme, Answering Adversity. Amongst them I am featured for my project on the shutdown of the Kingston Prison Farm, one of six Prison Farms being shutdown across Canada, a national issue that will cost tax payers millions of dollars and another wrong move on the government's part.

Print publication:
Above is the paper publication currently in print. My photo is located right page top left, and next to me is Jen Allison's image, one of my peer mentees.

Web publication:
Read the full photo essay and check out all the pics here.
For all the other photo essays featured in the mag.

Travel Story: Morocco: The beginning

I really didn’t want to leave Spain, I was loving everything about Spain, the language, the people, the food, the climate. I could walk downstairs and get a delicious meat sandwich for €2.00 and walk 5minutes and you are at one of the most beautiful beaches you'll ever see. Everything about Spain reminded me of living in Greece, the hot weather, the beach, the nightlife.

Anyways, enough about Spain.
So here we are approaching Marrakech going 300km/h at 1500 feet. All you can see is just light brown sand and concrete buildings. 'My first touchdown on the continent of Africa' i thought to myself. Exciting or nervous? A little of both. Let's just say I didn't know what to expect. Enter the passport checkroom, this was interesting. 6 line ups and about 200 people. I line up but halfway through waiting, the customs agent handling my line decides to just get up and leave. Excellent system. So now there’s 25 people in front of me wondering if they should move to another line up or? I pick a lineup that’s going fast, pass through, 30 minutes of waiting. When we get into the actual huge airport room, I'm surprised by the size of it and the modern architecture.


Decided I didn't want to start bargaining right away so we took the bus into the medina.
I stepped off the bus and I'm immediately culture-shocked. There are a thousand different smells in the air, curry, camel shit, dirt, petrol, you name it. Men are walking around holding hands with each other, apparently it is common and non-homosexual whatsoever...just friendly(in fact, having same-sex activity is illegal in Morocco.) Camels hanging out under a tree, monkeys on leashes, cobras in baskets being poked by their master, you know normal every day things you would see in North America.


Not being completely overwhelmed I get swarmed by locals, selling things, hash, soap, etc. Amongst these locals are the horse-carriage men(that is what I shall call them), being overwhelmed and not knowing where the hostel is I decide maybe I should take one of these. Well, here was my first lesson on 101 bargaining with a Moroccan 'businessman'.

"220 DIRHAMS SIR!" he says. Quick conversion in my head = 22euros. I say, "Don't think so, way too much." "How much?" he says. "80 dirham." I reply. "120" he says. "OK" I say, thinking I just got 10 Euros off! Woohoo! When in fact I soon realized that was way too much to pay. I did not make that mistake again on my whole trip. But the guy did take us through the market streets that hardly fit the carriage and were packed with people. He then took us to where our hostel was and pointed down a small alley. We got off in a hurry cause we felt bad that this carriage had just gone through hundreds of people, pushing them aside to let US through. Then a man approaches us, shaved head, baby blue shirt, pink hat, clearly hits the gym every day, pretty much a Moroccan Guido. I show him our hostel address expecting directions but he then takes the paper and starts leading us through the little side streets. The carriage had dropped us off at the wrong street. By the time we got to our hostel this man had recruited 10 random kids that led the way. I knew that I had to tip him but i had no idea how much and I wasn’t going to tip all the little kids too. I figured 20 dirham = 2euro is enough; it did only take him 5minutes. I hand him the 20 dirham, disappointed he simply turns around and leaves. And that is how our journey into the depths of the Marrakech medina begun.

Travel: España June 10th-14th

On June 10th I landed in Reus, Spain with my travel buddy, Josie. I then took the bus to Tarragona, Spain where we would stay with Josie's sister, Violet. We were to leave for Morocco on the 4th day in Spain. We spent our first day in Tarragona on the beach where we wrestled giant waves and ate delicious local sandwiches.
Our second day, we travelled by train to Barcelona and checked out Park Guell, a park built in the years of 1900-1914 by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. When we returned to Tarragona we went to check out the local clubs and have a drink. The next day we relaxed then headed to a spanish festival in a small neighbouring town, there we listened to a live spanish concert and ate Churros. The next day we would be heading to Marrakech, Morocco.

Exhibition 2010

On April 26th, we had the Annual Algonquin Photography Exhibition where we displayed 1st year and 2nd year work. Me and Jen Hladkowitz being two graduates and apparently having displayed good public speaking skills, were chosen to be the 'Masters of Ceremony'. We had to get up in front of 400 or so people and introduce the presenters for the different awards.

I won the NIKON Award($500 Gift certificate) for 'Best Magazine Cover'! I was also nominated for 'Best Website', and 'Best Portfolio'. So happy to have won that award and nominated for another two, just comes to show that I'm on the right path and people like what I'm doing. Thank you to everyone that supports the work I do and to my sister for modeling the shot that made me win!

To check out the set-up, a slideshow of images from the show, and the Awards slideshow, click here.

Thank you to everyone that made the exhibition possible! Good luck to all my fellow second years on their future adventures!

Co-op in Los Angeles, California

In order to graduate from the Algonquin College Photography Program all students must complete a certain amount of hours of free-labour/co-op/internship/field placement with a Pro Photographer.
During the search for a photographer, the photography I enjoy and want to go into is discussed between Jen Allison (a fellow graduate) and Angus Fergusson (a Toronto Photographer). Angus suggested I check out Kwaku Alston (a Venice California-based photographer).
And so I did and after a month or so of constant emailing and phoning back (without being annoying) I got the placement with him!

Shortly after that I was on my way to Los Angeles, California interning for photographer Kwaku Alston. My time with Kwaku was spent organizing his studio and workspace, getting rid of old papers and old electronics, website building, and assisting on photoshoots.
I assisted Kwaku on the beach photographing people with an 8x10 camera for his 'Horizon Court' series, documenting different individuals in Venice beach. I also had the chance to see what it is like behind-the-scenes at a 'People' Magazine photoshoot in Beverly Hills where we photographed Dancing with the Stars couple, Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Aaron Carter.
It was an overall amazing experience and I hope to see more of Kwaku and Los Angeles in the near future.
Thank you Kwaku for giving me this opportunity, I'm glad to have helped!

Check me out on Kwaku Alston's blog(under 'Entry 104')
Check me out on the Algonquin College Photography blog