Freedom Fighters, take 3

Music | Belonging (Lopsides Lullaby)by Joshua Redmond

I take huge pride in working with Roosevelt High School's Writing Program where incoming freshman work together and interview Portland Freedom Fighters, socially conscious individuals who make the world a better place to live. This is the 3rd year in a row where I was given the free reign to shoot portraits of these heroic figures who have given to the community. The students gather information from the Freedom Fighters and put together a book as well as a museum quality presentation documenting their stories, which travels around the Portland area as an exhibition.

Here are a few of the 16 portraits...







special thanks to Epson whose contribution allows for prints to be made

Exhibition at the Artist Repertory Theatre

Music | Star Eyes by Bill Evans

I had roughly a week to put together images for submission to a group show that would accompany a David Mamet written play, Race. The venue would be at the Artist Repertory Theatre, brought together by the Open Door Gallery. This would be one of the biggest shows I would be a part of, so I was quite excited to try and be a part of it.

Though I didn't have all the necessary incidentals for presentation, I had determined I'd get it done no matter what. Fortunately, my photo gods fell into place and I picked up a few commissions to purchase frames, glass, mattes and boards. With an hour to spare, I promptly dropped off my work. Unfortunately, I didn't write a bio or description of my work and how it pertained to the show itself. That evening, I wrote the following...

Ted Mishima - Photographer. Studied at University of Illinois at Chicago. Lives in Portland, Oregon. Divorced. From Chicago, Illinois. Born on December 10

Since taking up photography seriously in the early 80's, photographs of people have always interested me. Being able to capture a moment in the life of someone and have it tell a story thru time - minutes, hours, days, months, years just seemed magical to me.

Having grown up in a diverse and unique area of Hyde Park, in Chicago, IL., I didn't have to deal with racism until I left to go away to college. Everyone I knew lived no more than a few blocks from people of different ethnicity's Conflicts never arouse because of the colour of skin.

But as Dr. Seuss puts it, “Adults are just obsolete children...” The simplicity of life became more complicated and the issues of black and white and my relationships with people of "colour," black, white, and other ethnicity's became more sensitive.

In a profound aesthetic, I imagine all my photographs of people I may have been trying to decipher the differences of people. In the end, I don't think it is the differences that matter, but the similarities.

I just found out today, all 5 of my submissions made it into the show... The play opens this Friday, opening to the artwork will be determined...

When the Ending Doesn't Have an End

Music | Induction by Broken Spindles

The exhibition that started this project has selected there artists and unfortunately, I was not a part of the show. Françoise and I had all ready decided we would try and shoot more of the head pieces to continue the project and here are 2 more.


click to view gallery

Though I didn't get into the exhibition with the wet plates, I have no regrets at all in pursuing this project. Having brought myself the opportunity to work with Françoise, Cain and Ray, I have a series of 3 great images to put into the portfolio. It has also initiated me to start printing again, which led me to a few print sales. Working with Ray, I found I may have the opportunity to share studio space where these images were created...

Getting into that exhibition would have been a nice ending to a journey that began when I saw the first show 3 years ago. Though January was when I found out about the Call for Artists, I took on what I thought would be a difficult uphill challenge just to see if I could accomplish something from start to finish. They say the destination is secondary to the journey and I've learned that is correct. I'm not one of the artists that will be in that show, but what I started a little more than a month ago, I'm still walking thru the trip.