Fall is upon us and as the days get shorter and the first flakes of snow begin to fall it is a time to reflect and appreciate all the experiences we had this spring and summer. Pixels has enjoyed a summer season that saw many new visitors from around the world who enjoyed the gallery and are now following us, hello to all of you and thank you for spreading the word that we are here.
As I reflect back on all the wonderful exhibits there is an individual that has be a steady inspiration to the gallery not only in his amazing personality but in the his dedication and openness in sharing of his art. Rodney Braun has faced the adversities of being a dedicated photographic artist and all its trials and tribulations, yet, it never dimmed the light within that drives his art. His creative and fertile imagination never ceases to amaze most everyone who views his work. Those that have had the privilege of being one of his subjects they’ve all praise his enchanting character and gentile demeanor and everyone looks forward to being invited back for his next amazing artistic journey.
I think its important that you have a better understanding of his commitment to his art. Rod is a young man with three growing vibrant children and a devoted wife (Sonya) who with their total support spiritually and monetarily pump life into his dream. As a united family they have supported him in his journey as they pour every available household dollar into book projects, gallery exhibitions, equipment and a studio. All this with a dream that one day they could realize a modest living in return. Bravo to the Braun family!!!!
Through these challenging times Rod’s imagination has endured and in early 2010 he created a body of work that took over 6 months to capture and involved over 60 models who would willingly bare it all and told their stories. The work was call “Just As I Am” and was a self published book of the same title.
Rods first exhibit at Pixels was a new departure for him as it was all scenic images from his trips back a forth to his and Sonya’s old homestead in Saskatchewan. This exhibit showed a sensitivity and a pure understanding of the landscape that only a resident farm hand could have. This image shown here won Rod PPOC-MB creative photographer of the year.
During that same summer Rod embarked on a dream that became an amazing underwater experience. H2Ohhhh was created by utilizing creative dancers performing under water. Rods quick inventive process created a body of work that will transport you to another world. Colour, movement, lighting were only some of the obvious hurdles that needed to be understood and develop. The equipment had many obvious complexities with some being fortuitous but his skills as a photographer pulled him through. This is an iconic body of work to any photographers standards. The resulting second self published book leaves testament to his skills and imagination as a photographic artist.
In 2011 Rod split his time between two more projects. He had a deep desire to learn and understand why people have tattoos. His research unveiled some amazing stories that people were willing to share both by text and also visually using Rods very sensitive style of photographic imagery. This exhibit garnered Rod an audience that both appreciated the art of tattoo but most importantly learned to appreciate some of the deep rooted story lines of hidden drug abuse, cancer losses and survivals, remembrances and the honoring of soul mates. Gallery visitations by press writers to the person off the street couldn’t help but share a tear and a smile during their visit to the exhibit.
At this same time he was creating a new fantasy project called “Airborne”. During Rods experimentation with movement in water he honed a skill of watching and anticipating what movement did and meant to the environment around the body in motion. He then wondered how he could capture this same visual element outside of the water and that fertile imagination I spoke of earlier, kicked in. Airborne was created to show how the human bodies movement affects the air around us. Of course, who better to choose as models, dancers, and very quickly they were assembled. The secret potion medium used to study the air movement, common house hold baking flour. Did I mention earlier how inventive he was.
I was privileged to join Rod on one of the shoots and was amazed at how simple it looked but incredibly difficult it was to make a capture that not only caught a moment in time that expressed the movement but was also a visually stunning creation. To work with something that you have limited control over puts huge demands on your patients and persistence, Rod has those qualities in spades.
Pixels is very please to announce that we will be sharing our gallery with Rodney once again to exhibit the amazing images of “Airborne”. Over the summer many people asked if could please bring it back so we’re doing just that. The exhibit is on between the dates of Oct 5th to Oct 20. Rodney will be here this Friday Oct 5 at 7:00 pm to tell us about his experiences with Airborne and maybe enlighten us with what may be in the future.
Here is a challenge for those that do understand photography, try this at home. First cover a room in plastic or better still go outside on a calm day. Take a 10 lb. bag of baking flower and play. Throw it, slap it, clap it and any other way you can invent and see how incredibly difficult it is to get a good composition but most importantly how much fun it is…. Send us your best shots and we’ll post them on our blog.
See you Friday… Oh yes, if you can make it we will have a sweet surprise.
