am golhar aw11

Am Golhar knitwear / AW11

Photos by me

has it been that long?

2011 now...

...this time last year we were planning a trip to vancouver for may, to join the kids at Northern Voice 2010... from London to Railtown, I traveled with my soon-to-be husband for his first trip to the Left Coast. We caught seven clear and beautiful days - he met my family for the first time, saw the Pacific, drove the Sea-to-Sky to Whistler, had a Caesar at the Longhorn, crossed to Galiano, rowed in phosphorescence, eagle-spotted at Wreck, had a Siegel's bagel at Granville Island and took the aquabus across False Creek to the tiki patio at the Narrow.

We connected with the self-publishing community on a sunny weekend, under beaming atriums; immersed in this fascinating, specifically and evangelically open subset, to whom "sharing" is a mantra, and blanket documentation is as natural as taking a breath.

I presented a panel on retouching, about the ways I hate it and the ways I love it, really - more of a stream of consciousness rant wherin I took some questions. (photo by nredmond) ...photographers Kris Krug, Bev Davies and Jody Rogac were in house, along with a ton of inspiringly enthusiastic and serious pro-ams with better gear than I.

Ben saw what a really well-lit building full of Social Media Types might actually be like, we all learned the value of high-speed unlocked wifi, and Ben, like a lot of people, probably thought about self-publishing for the first time ever.

Propagation of ideas and images, through a vetted network of creative professionals - ownership of online presence and therein definition - these were some of the ideas that traveled back with us.

Since that time, there's been a festival, a wedding, and a winter, some Vogue and some i-D , some more Vogue, some q&as... all these things leading us to here, early 2011 ...and already it's time to think about going back.

Coming back to Northern Voice this year, would mean a look back at this year and our personal advances in self-publishing over that time - for example, my husband Ben Ashton has since then been maintaining a blog through which he has documented prep for his Feb 2011 solo exhibition at Simon Oldfield Gallery in Covent Garden, as well as other projects from 2010. Ben has been livestreaming the progress on the canvases for his new collection - from blank white shapes to rich and deep domestic divulgences - and using the BenAshtonArt twitter to announce when the stream is live.

Last year's visit was thanks entirely to Northern Voice's travel bursary, and our brilliant homemade blackberry video, shot by Ben, at the beginning of which I believe you can tell I accidentally kicked a little girl. Would be great to hook that up again this year - London to Vancouver is a long, long way.

photos by kk+ (including the wedding shot) and by my blackberry

city v. country

// thamesroom //

// so urban //

// bb travels //

// blackberry 8900

Hey NV10, bring me out to Vancouver!

Hey guys - here's my plea for one (or hopefully two, seeing as it's a couple thousand kilometerssss....) of your generous travel bursaries.

I moved from my hometown of Vancouver to my other hometown of London, England, last July, after six years of givin' 'er a go as a fashion photographer in Vancouver's somewhat less-than-vibrant fashion market. While of course I miss my friends and family, the beach, the seawall, the spring Sakura, ohhh my God, the food at Guu.. I am really committed to pursuing my career, and this is where it has led me.

Check out my lil video below, my appeal to you, the NV10 team, to bring me across a very large pond to come and trade ideas and new approaches with everyone at Northern Voice 10.

I feel like I have a gift for sharing experiences and opening people up to new ways of expressing themselves. I have a lot of friends and colleagues in the sprawling Vancouver social media network, and would love the opportunity to meet up with everyone to both share and to absorb ideas, methods and tips as far as getting our work out there, and just to share share share!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjM_L7erWbc]

If you like, check me out through my friends and colleagues in Vancouver - lovelies like Kris Krug and Rachel Zottenberg of Grace Gallery not to mention my former boss Vanessa Leigh and my editor Michael Mann at ION Magazine where I was the photo editor for five years, as well as the admin and instigator of our flickr pool.

(As an aside, maybe the reason I came out so technologically inclined <read: nerdy> was as a result of growing up in the same house as my techie pioneering big bro, Alex Garden, one of the founders of Relic Entertainment, currently reinventing the Deathstar at Microsoft.)

As well, incase you missed the links in the video, here they are again:

My website for my fashion photography

My twitter

My Crackbook

My (I must admit, totally killer) StumbleUpon

My LinkedIn

...and on a final, heart-wrenching, family-oriented note, the event falls over the weekend of my dear old Dad's 65th birthday, so being back "home" would allow me to share that with him as well - and really, it's all about sharing, right?