Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Opening Saturday at North Toronto’s Meridian Arts Centre Eddie Grant photo of PM Manley Way back in the 70s and 80s a quintet of Caribbean Canadian photojournalists were literarily the Ears, Eyes and Voice of Toronto’s many hard-hitting community newspapers!  Press photographs taken by Jules Elder, Eddie Grant, Diane Liverpool, Al Peabody and Jim Russell are on display beginning Saturday at the Meridian Arts Centre in North Toronto as part of Black History Month celebrations in the city. This free exhibition, presented by TO Live, brings together important historic works by the five “shooters”. Their combined collection of photographs is a rare pictorial record of newspaper stories that covered the evolving history of the community. Ears, Eyes, Voice bring back both good and bad memories from the streets of Toronto. There are pictures of reggae star Peter Tosh at the O’Keefe Centre; Caribana as a giant Blocko on University Avenue, and a large Africa Li...

Eddie Grant, Prime Minister Manley shaking hands with Al Hamilton Contrast publisher with Anthony Hill 1980 Five Veteran Shooters Were the Eyes Of The Caribbean Canadian Community Back In The Day Back in the 70s, 80s and 90s a very small group of Caribbean Canadian photojournalists were literarily the Ears, Eyes and Voice of many Toronto community newspapers!  Press Photographs taken by Jules Elder, Eddie Grant, Diane Liverpool, Al Peabody and Jim Russell are on display at the Art Gallery of Burlington as part of that gallery’s Black History Month celebration. Ears, Eyes, Voice: Black Canadian Photojournalists 1970s - 1990s is an exhibition that brings together important visual works by the five “shooters”. Their combined collection of photographs is a comprehensive and rare record that have documented over three decades of stories about the history of Toronto’s Caribbean Canadian community. Organized and circulated by Black Artists’ Networks in Dialogue (BAND), ...

.   . 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...

Yes, we accept exchanges. Artist Max Dean, takes back a photography album from a woman who found the pictures depressing.  She get another album from Max.  Dean gives away albums to strangers throughout the Contact Festival from the back of his Volkswagen " Foto Bug".  The Foto Bug was parked in front of MOCCA when this photograph was taken. Have Album Will Travel - artist gives away photographic memories in the street Over the past decade, performance artist Max Dean has collected over 600 photo albums. Family Memories. Forgotten Records. Pictures of the past. At the official opening of the Contact Photography Festival in Toronto, Dean told a large audience at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art Gallery, that it was time that he got rid of his collection of albums. Rather than simply throw them away, Dean has made the act of divesting himself of his collection as a performance-based work of art. " About 100 of the albums have been donated to the Art...

. Scotiabank sponsors $50,000 prize, publishing deal and a gallery exhibition for the year's best photographer. Bay Street's brand new award By Stephen Weir On Friday March 11th, the Scotiabank announced in Toronto the three Canadian photographers who are in the running for the nation’s newest and richest photography award. The Scotiabank Photography Award – SPA - new this year, will not only reward one photographer with a $50,000 purse (the two runners up get $5,000 each) but will also give out a publishing contract with one of the world’s top publishing houses – the Swiss based Steidl Books – to the winner. Vancouver’s Roy Arden , Montréal’s Lynn Cohen and Robin Collyer , (Toronto) were named to the SPA short-list at a lunchtime press event. The announcement was made in the art-filled posh 63rd floor office (think of it as an economic spa) headquarters of Scotiabank in downtown Toronto. “Believe me, we aren’t grumpy old bankers,” said Scotiabank vice-president John Doig....