Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Toronto Carnival’s offical media launch attendees - photo and story by Stephen Weir  Caribbean Graphic Canada Magazine 618 Strouds Lane, Pickering, ON L1V 4S9 • Tel: 905.831-4402 • Fax: 416.292.2943 • Email: caribbeangraphic@rogers.com Canada All Set For Toronto’s Carnival (May 30, 2012) ... The stage is all set for the Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival’s big parade on August 4th. As the 45th year for the festival formerly known as Caribana, 2012 promises to be much bigger with new events, new locations and additional corporate sponsors. It all starts July 17th at Toronto’s Nathan Phillip’s Square, home of Toronto’s City Hall, That’s the date and venue for the Festival’s Official Public Launch. On July 21st, Downsview Park will host the Junior Carnival Parade, a Kiddie’s version of the big parade. Last year over 2,000 children performed for the judges and played Mas along the streets of the Jane Finch corridor. Downsview Park, better suited to handle the growing num

  . But a Toronto Summer is always Hot, Hot, Hot. Jump Up. Jump Up. In the land of  snow   (feature article for WinTV's inflight magazine - Trinidad)  Playing Mas in downtown Toronto - photograph by Andrew Weir In Canada, carnival is done differently. In Trinidad, you might even call it backwards. But hey, if you can get a million people to jump up, you gotta be doing something right. At Carnival in Trinidad, everyone plays Mas in the street.  The players out-number the people watching by a long shot.  In Toronto?  There are million people cheering on the 16,000 people playing Mas along the city’s waterfront! The Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival is getting ready to hit the streets of Toronto, this August 4th.  This is the 45 th year for the festival formally known as Caribana, and not only is going to be bigger, it is going to be better. The Toronto festival runs for three weeks and attracts over a million people from Ontario, the United States and

Jon Butler opens his exhibition of photographs, on display in the RBC Tower on Bay Street. Part of Contact Festival. Jon Butler uses his camera to have a Group of Seven moment in God's Country La Cloche Spirit: The Equivalent Light, opens in Toronto. Part of Contact Festival   Jon Butler at one time was an integral part of the Thomson News Corporation. Publisher. Newspaper Executive.  Nowadays, he lets others write the news, while he pursues beauty with his camera in Northern Ontario.  On Monday evening Butler opened an exhibition of photographs he took in the La Cloche region of Georgian Bay.  The show launch was held in the lobby of the  Royal Bank's Bay Street Tower as part of the month long Contact Photography Festival.  Three Ontario and Federal cabinet ministers, a over 50-art lovers attended the opening sponsored by Vale's Base Metals, a Toronto based mining company. The La Cloche area, known for the beauty of its quartzite mountains, crystal clear lakes

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

 .   $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