Back from canoeing and camping at algonquin

So we went camping in Algonquin provincial Park starting off at the Portage shop on Canoe Lake heading north to Tepee lake that lead to Little Oxtoungue River then into Tom Thompson where we spent the first couple of nights on a quiet Lake. The silence was almost deafening. With hardly any birds chirping, however the weather was perfect aside from maybe 15 minutes of rain on one day. Then we headed back south to Smoke Lake over choppy waters to Ragged Lake where it was much more lively with lots of wildlife. We had an incredible site with the mountaintop be behind us. One of the funniest things that happened was when I wandered down to the waterfront to take some photos and there was an otter that started snorting at me he would dodge under the water and come back up again and snort snort at me and was trying to get me to leave because I discovered that his house was right behind me under the roots of a tree. I’m back in Toronto away from the pleasant dreams of nature and the sounds of the forest. I miss sound the loons and I think we’re going to go again in September I can’t wait.

Seattle erotic arts festival

Some of my work will be featured this weekend at the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival.

Here’s the info.

Seattle Erotic Arts

“The installation builds momentum and explodes at its conclusion…”

This installation is wide, and through photographs, paintings, and a monitor displaying hundreds of digital images, it will demonstrate the revolutionary change which took place across this 60 year period.
Many people are unfamiliar with the severe restrictions imposed upon photographers in the mid-century. These artists were often threatened, sometimes jailed, and all were forced to share their work in the most limited manner.

Beginning with George Quaintance’s photography and paintings, through the “posing strap” era of Bob Mizer/AMG and others such as the Western Photography Guild, the images morph into what is available today.

The installation begins with some early black and white images (many from a private collection), which are stunning in their simplicity.

Significant moments are noted, such as the late 1960s when the U.S. Postal Service dropped its restrictions on frontal nudity being sent in the mail. This moment alone was a game-changer: the posing straps (shown in the image above) came off once and for all, and gay erotic photography changed forever.
But it wasn’t just the dropping of the posing straps: technology changed. The forbidden images became available to all. Images which were once only imagined or viewed in private are now accessed by and available to nearly everyone.

The installation builds momentum and explodes at its conclusion as it flashes hundreds of images of the men Jim has known and photographed over the last ten years, representing the current stage of proliferation and freedom in gay erotic art and images.