Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

.   . AS MAY FADES, SO DOES THE CONTACT FESTIVAL. STILL TIME TO SEE MAGGS, MACLEANS AND SCHOOL EYED KENYA! (Draft article for Huffington Post Blog) Somewhere in the great city of Toronto, there is an art lover who has seen every single Contact Festival picture hung by over 1,500 Canadian and international photographers in 175 venues throughout the city.  But for the rest of us,  it is a challenge to  see at best a few of the exhibitions that make up the  world's largest month long photography festival.  With only a few days left in the At the Design Exchange Big Show, what will you see? May I suggest three -  the late Arnaud Maggs (AGO/Ryerson), Maclean's Face to Face (Gladstone Hotel)  and the intriguing group show - I Am Standing In The Place Where I Live - by four students from Emori Joi High School in Kenya (Design Exchange)! I Am Standing In The Place Where I Live : Christopher Nokes is a well-known figure in Toronto's art scene, and an inspirationa

The Master Photographer Has Died (Huffington Post  http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/arnaud-maggs-dies-_b_2170683.html ) After Nadar - self-portrait by Arnaud Maggs. Press photograph courtesy of the Susan Hobbs Gallery --> Photographer 86-year old photographer Arnaud Maggs didn't suffer media fools lightly.  "If another reporter asks me how come I have managed to stay active so long, and what is my secret to long life, I am going to tell him sex and drugs" he groused as we walked out of the Canada AM television studio. "What about Rock and Roll?" I asked. Arnaud thought for a moment, smiled and answered, "less so". It was in the late spring and Maggs was on a roll. He had had a successful show of his works in Toronto at the Susan Hobbs Gallery.  The National Gallery in Ottawa had paid the ultimate tribute by opening Arnaud Maggs: Identification  a survey exhibition that follows the senior artist’s production over four de

 .   $50,000 Cash Prize. A Book Deal and An Exhibition Next Year 2012 Scotiabank Photography Award L-R, MC and Arts Editor at the Globe Gabe Gonda, Janes Nokes, Exec. Dir. SPA with SPA winner Arnaud Maggs; and photographer Ed Burtynsky, Chair SPA . Toronto artist Arnaud Maggs received the second annual Scotiabank Photography Award (SPA) at a ceremony held this evening at Toronto's Design Exchange.  Celebrating excellence in contemporary photography, the $50,000 award, solo Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival exhibition in 2013 and book deal with international art photography publisher Steidl, is Canada's largest prize for an established Canadian photographic artist. "To receive this award is an honour, and it too is an honour to be named in the company of my gifted peers, Fred Herzog and Alain Paiement," said Arnaud Maggs. "Scotiabank's work over the past years both through its involvement in the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Fe

Shy Guy Alain Paiement   Pointing a YouTube camera in the faces of Canada’s BEST photographers (Huffington Post Blog by Stephen Weir) If you can get a photographer to talk, oh the stories you will hear... Over the years I have handled publicity assignments for some of Canada’s best known artists, authors, and, now and then, photographers.  Although one shouldn’t make sweeping generalities about the personality traits of red hot artists, when it come to photographers, the best cliché is “Mum’s the Word”. Authors know that the gift of the gab sells books, and for centuries, painters have been expected to attend their exhibitions. Sculptors appear larget than life – just like their carvings. But, photographers are different. Really different. Doesn’t matter what language. Open the dictionary to the word "shy" and it will likely read: photographer. They see the world with a box held to one eye, separating them from their subject.  For Montreal