PhotEvoke

Shadows

admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 18:34:31 +0000

We have a tendency to ignore homeless people in our daily lives because often we feel that we can’t spare the money. How do we justify this when we are in a place where we knowingly give away our money to slot machines and other casino games?

I was in Las Vegas when I snapped this photo and watched as countless people walked past this man who sat in the shadows. No one was willing to spare some change for him but were more than willing to throw away money into slot machines. It was all rather disgusting but at same time I came away feeling helpless to this man. I knew there was no amount of money that I could give him that would help him get off the streets. I was sure that a generous donation would only last him a few days and would never be enough to fix any of his problems. I too walked past this man without sparing a dime making me the worst of them all. I had stopped long enough to take a photo and think about what was taking place and yet, I still chose to do nothing.

Lip Service

admin — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 20:14:52 +0000

I look back to this day and I amazed how naive I was. I took this photo because I found beauty in your lips, because to me they were perfect. It’s funny how something I thought was so beautiful was the source of countless lies and empty promises. Your lips coaxed me into a happiness I thought was mutual and even at our end I had a hard time discerning truth from fiction.

At some point you decided that what you were doing was for the best, that is was what we needed. The harsh reality is that it wasn’t, it was all for you. The lies kept you going and happy just as much as they did for me the only difference is that you knew the truth.

Now when your lips quiver and your voices shrieks of pain, you implore me to remember the happiness we shared as words flow out your mouth the same way they always have.

Luis Cambell

Boom Boom Pow

admin — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 19:00:15 +0000

I had always thought there was something odd about my neighbour who lived across the hallway. In an entire year I had only seen him a few times and knew from the countless flyers left stuck to his door that he was often gone for long stretches of time. On the few occasions that I had seen him he wore a baseball cap and slouched so much that it was hard to look at him directly in the face.

Although I never knew him personally we did have a little bit of a history which I will never forget.

Late one night at around 2:35am he played My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas for 2 hours straight. It was so loud I could hear it from my bed across the hallway. For a while I let him carry on but there’s only so much Black Eyed Peas a person can take so I walked out into the hallway and knocked on his door. Instantly the music stopped….but no one answered the door. I assume he had been looking at me through the peep hole. I figured he was going to stop as he didn’t want to answer the door, so he probably didn’t want to get into any kind of confrontation. I made my way back into my bed and the second I closed my eyes the music picked up again. I was at a loss and it was clear that he was having some personal issues because what kind of sick person tortures themselves by listening to My Humps on repeat that late at night?

Thankfully that only happened once and everything was quiet until months later when I was making dinner I heard people talking just outside my apartment door. I looked through the peephole and saw two police officers and a few women. Curiosity took over me instantly and stood behind the door silently observing what was going on. I discovered that one of the women was my neighbour’s mother and she had been trying to contact her son for some time, Unable to do so she contacted the police and was now trying to get into his apartment to see if he had left. I soon discovered that Brian had personality disorder and run away many times in the past. His mother also mentioned that he had a history with wanting to commit suicide.

Finally the police got his apartment open all the while I stood behind my door oblivious to all those outside. I grabbed my cellphone and started to started to take pictures through the peephole. At first I thought they were going to open the door and he was going to be hanging from a noose right in front of the door, thankfully that was not the case. It turned out he wasn’t home which was a relief to everyone including myself was. A few weeks went by and few women stopped by his apartment to move his things out. I never heard or saw anything about Brian again and there are new tenants in his apartment. I hope Brian is still alive and that he is with his family who were clearly distraught about the whole ordeal.

Evan Mclean

Observer

admin — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 19:04:08 +0000

Through my backseat window I peered through into the unsuspecting world. We traveled up and down the country that summer never really participating in what we saw outside. We were observers to life that summer and through the rectangular viewfinder in my camera I tried to capture the perfect moments going on around me. We took a lot of photos but they were all filled with blank stares, fakes smiles and mild amusement except for this one. This one photo was filled with candid human interaction that was not staged for the purpose of going into another photo album. Take a moment to look at this photo and you’ll start to see into these people lives, just for a moment, as they sit on a bench enjoying the architecture, take a picture of friend and enjoy a conversation. All these moments I wish I could have enjoyed myself that summer but I’ll settle for this one photograph.

In Bloom

admin — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 19:00:09 +0000

This is hard

This never ending pursuit

Leading me higher and higher

Perpetually out of reach

I push ahead

-Matt

Fire

admin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:00:53 +0000

Last summer smoke from forest fires in British Columbia made it all the way into Northern Ontario. That would mean that the smoke has travelled over 4000km which seems unimaginable. The air was thick and foggy making it hard to breath and I was reminded of other forest fires around the world. Forest fires in Russia and Portugal had left many dead or homeless. To make things worse many of these fires had been set intentionally. Europe authorities had arrested individuals who were found lighting fires and to my surprise many of the individuals were a lot older then I had expected. How these people could do such things in their homelands that not only affected them but hundreds of people around them is baffling to me.

This picture was taken in December of 2006, months after fires had raged through this area. You can hardly tell except for the charred trees that anything had ever happened here but months earlier this had been a black burnt wasteland. Although things appear to have come back to life in this region many people are still feeling the repercussions of these events.

Nature Nostalgia

admin — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 19:00:25 +0000

When I was little, I used to go hiking or on nature walks quite a bit. So much so that in camp one year, I went along with older kids on night hikes when kids my age were supposed to be sleeping.
Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of those times. But I still go through the woods every year, usually with friends. It always takes me back to when I was little, learning about the difference between toads and frogs. It’s usually in the same park, too, and I find new things every time. Just one of life’s simple pleasures.

Winter Daze

admin — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:00:13 +0000

Together in tow we made our way through the snow.

Denise Brown

The Secret of Awesome Friendship

admin — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:00:43 +0000

I’m going to start off by admitting that I’m cheating with this PhotEvoke submission, but I’ll explain why it should still be accepted. See I have an awesome group of friends who I use to see/speak with on the phone at least once every day. However, as we grew older and moved on to bigger and brighter things, these daily occurrences became more and more of a luxury. From going on random walks and watching movies as Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction would say “just because” to “fat-guying” it up with outings to our favourite restaurants and talking on the phone for hours, we never skipped a beat. Now I’m not dogging on the idea of growing older, hell if Ferris Bueller could accept it so can I, but with age you get more responsibilities which take time away from the things you would like to do. This brings me back to my submission, today (no it wasn’t Christmas Day, although it is frighteningly Charles Dickens-ish close) one of my best friends called and we spoke after weeks of trying. I know, it sounds like a “Bad Romance,” but Gaga has nothing on this. In any case, after speaking to each other, the idea was reinforced that no matter how far away or how long it’s been since you’ve last seen or talked with someone you care for, the moment you hear them time and distance no longer seem relevant and everything goes back to normal. This picture reminds of what true fun is when you’re with good friends, anything you want it to be.

*note
It appears this PhotEvoke shares the same picture as a previous PhotEvoke we published earlier this year called Chapters

December in Review

admin — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:00:25 +0000

We’ve had a lot of great PhotEvoke’s this month. Here are our Top 3.

Soft Glow

My Christmas Tree

Snow Fall

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