Non-Fiction

Here are a few photos from last week’s assignments which concluded with 3 days of Davis Cup Tennis over the weekend. 

Some assignments from last week. 

“Ken Hayden has owned and operated the Varsity Ridge Bowling lanes in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver since 1981. The bowling alley itself has been around for close to 63 years. New condo developments have driven the Kitsilano icon to shut down shortly, leaving the city of Vancouver with less then 4 bowling alleys, a feeble number compared to over 20 bowling alleys present 40 years ago.”

Ben Nelms for The Globe & Mail.

Read the story here - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/its-the-final-frame-for-famed-vancouver-bowling-alley/article9650340/

Meet 24 year old Robert Gagno. 

Robert is currently Canada’s pinball champion. He is also ranked in the top 10 in the world. I found Robert and asked him if I could document his life over the period of 2 weeks and we immediately clicked.

Robert, who suffers from autism, is quite simply one of the most genuine and joyful people I have met in a long time. I often found myself putting my cameras down and just talking about hockey, The Simpsons and other light topics that made him ecstatic. He didn’t care about politics, the sad news of the day or anything remotely aggressive. It was so refreshing and this made photographing Robert one of the highlights of my days.

I traveled with him to Portland last weekend where he participated in a professional pinball tournament where he tried to defend his 1st place title he won last year. 

You can read a short write up in accompanied the photostory in last week’s Globe.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/robert-gagno-burnabys-pinball-wizard/article9057100/

A few singles from the last weeks assignments. 

Mathew Arthur, 30, has converted his van into a 45 sq. foot living space. He is intending to live in his new home for a year.

I spent a few days with Mathew shooting a small picture story I pitched to the Globe & Mail. 

Read more about Mathew his van here:

http://qa3.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/seizing-the-opportunity-to-live-with-less/article8798256/?cmpid=rss1

In the shadow of the Superbowl.

I have always really enjoyed covering pro tennis. Photographing it is much different than any other ‘Canadian’ sport such as CFL or NHL. The field of play is much smaller, but angles and clean backgrounds are always on your mind. Although there was no beautiful light like the Australian Open has (see colleague Mark Blinch’s work here) there was emotion and a great story line. This year’s Davis Cup earned Canada their biggest win in Tennis since, well…ever.

A few assignments from the last week or so. 

Press conferences are known to be rather dry, boring and most of the time irrelevant. This is especially true visually. However, that being said press conferences are a crucial communicative link between the general population and the source of the news. 

The public release of the the long awaited Missing Women’s Inquiry was neither dry, boring and certainly very relevant.

Greif stricken mothers and family members of women who were slaughtered by serial killer Robert Pickton where overcome with emotion at the findings. Along with commissioner Wally Oppal, Attorney General Shirley Bond was fighting back tears.

In October, I decided to invest some money and time into creating a small book in which I could mail to potential photo-editors and clients.

The book would contain 3 recent photo-stories I have worked on. All three stories are ones in which I pursued on my own and shot on my own time. I didn’t include any ‘on-assignment’ work for two reason; firstly, I believe that photo-editors see assignment work on a daily basis and they would rather see work that the photographer is not told to shoot but rather shots on his/her own time. Secondly, I truly feel that in this day and time a lot of people can take great looking photos and that what sets photojournalists apart is the time and dedication put into their work. I dont want to take pictures of nouns, I want to take pictures of verbs.

I wanted to stay away from the shotgun approach of sending 100 postcards to everyone and anyone. Don’t get me wrong, this would work and undoubtedly reach A LOT more editors, but it just didn’t feel right. I wanted to give them something more personal.

I took a few bookmaking design courses and over the course of a month put together a small run of catalogs titled ‘Non-Fiction’. I sent these out to quite a small group of art directors/photo editors. It certainly wasn’t cheap and it was time consuming, but the reward of having a small catalog in your hands at the end of the process was fantastic.

I have four left over, in which I am going to sell for $20, shipping included.

Send me an email - ben@bennelms.ca

-B

During the last part of summer I worked on a photo story documenting the hunting and harvesting of Sharks off the Pacific waters of Canada for Canadian Geographic. The issue including the 10-page spread was on new stands in October and November. I also decided to hold a small exhibition of the work at a gallery in Chinatown, Vancouver. The photos were not for sale, nor was making any money the goal of the show.

I wanted to simply present this story to anyone interested learning more about Canada’s participation (good or bad) in the hunting of Sharks. I hope everyone left with a bit more conversation and insight into the sustainability and process of the shark finning industry.

“Last year, Canada became home to the first shark fishery in the world that was labeled with a Marine Stewardship Council certification. This is an internationally recognized certification that lists the B.C Spiny Dogfish Shark industry as ‘certified sustainable seafood.’ The fishery is located in the Pacific waters of Canada, off the coast and around Vancouver Island.”

Reuters blog - http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2012/12/06/fishing-for-fins/

RCMP officers walk next to the hearse carrying the casket of RCMP Const. Adrian Oliver during his funeral in Langley, British Columbia November 20, 2012. Const. Oliver was killed in a crash earlier this week in Surrey. REUTERS/Ben Nelms

Left - Author of the book Wheat Belly William Davis poses for a portrait at Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in Vancouver

Right - Joe Wai, owner and architect at Joe Wai Architect Inc. is pictured in his office in Vancouver, British Columbia

(Ben Nelms for the National Post)