international group of photographers, writers, artists, filmmakers, videographers and designers

an aamora show
produced by aaron schwartz
photographs by maura wolfson-foster

As a floundering member of aamora, I never seem to have much luck putting a decent slideshow together. For this sad effort I took some old shots taken during the last decade and ran them through Picnik’s Vignette and Orton-ish effects. By that time my short attention span was running on empty so I went looking for a song that ran the same time as the photos in iMovie. The song I came up with was “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. I shipped the slideshow off to Youtube only to find out that they wouldn’t let me use that song. Back I went to iMovie and found another song, “Walking on Sunshine,” that fit the bill. Back to Youtube I went with my revised slideshow. So far they have allowed the music to play which means if you click on the triangle below you will have to watch one mediocre pic after another as Katrina Leskanich shreds her lungs to the accompaniment of The Waves.

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“John Linton is a floundering member of aamora. He lives in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the state with the biggest name and smallest size.” Check out John’s other aamora posts here and see more of his work by clicking here.

A few months back we asked aamora members to join in a project called 23 hours. The premise of the project was to cease all verbal communication for 23 hours (continuously) and photograph absolutely anything you are thinking, feeling or seeing during the 23 hours of silence.

Below are the words and images of Claudia Luthi’s 23 hours.

Claudia Lüthi is an amateur photographer who lives in Lima, Peru. She is a founding member of aamora. You can see Claudia’s previous aamora posts by clicking here. You can also find her in JPG Magazine and in el lente de la coneja.

You will find the Amsterdam escutcheon everywhere you look. It consists of three white crosses of St. Andrew on a black pale on a red shield. The black probably represents the Amstel River while St. Andrew is the patron saint of fishermen and Amstellerdam began as a fishing community near a dam along the Amstel River. It’s an ironic symbol for a city known for its Red Light District.

After our flight from Copenhagen, our first day was primarily taken up with a tour of Keukenhof. I’d describe it as a flower child’s Disneyland. That evening we watched the Remembrance Day ceremony in Dam Square and were fortunate enough to be on the outer edge of the 20,000 people packed into Dam Square when the panic took hold. More about that here.

Day two, Liberation Day, included a tour of the Anne Frank Huis. That evening we watched the Liberation Day celebration along the Amstel. It was a panic free celebration.

Day three included a walk through the Red Light District, the Rembrandthuis, and Van Gogh Museum. We noticed more and more garbage in the streets as the strike entered it second week.

Day four was taken up with more walking along one canal after another dodging bikes, cars and trams. If you go to Amsterdam you need to always be aware of what’s going on around you. The Rijksmuseum was filled with all the Rembrandt’s, Vermeer’s, and Van Gogh’s (not to mention some other guys who seemed to know their way around a canvass) that anyone could possibly want to stare at.

Day five was a bit of a bummer…we had to head back to the airport for our flight back to Copenhagen, but that’s another slideshow.

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“John Linton is a floundering member of aamora. He lives in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the state with the biggest name and smallest size.” Check out John’s other aamora posts here and see more of his work by clicking here.

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[You can also watch this show on the aamora channel on Vimeo.]

Aaron Schwartz is the founder of aamora.com. You can see more of Aaron’s photography on his own photo site , and at jpgmag.com. You can check out his previous aamora posts here.

These images were first taken from HD video I shot with a very low shutter speed and moving the camera around for motion blurs of neon on Fremont street in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I then pulled frames out of the video stream that I felt worked well as abstract stills.

I then compiled them back together into this slide show with a slight Ken Burns motion effect.

The original set of frames can be seen in the “vegas blur” gallery here.

(Music: “That’s My Name” ~ Steinski)

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We’re always pleased when Skip returns to aamora. His photography is remarkable for its beautifully vivid color, incisive composition and varied locales, including Mexico, Guatemala and South Africa. You will be well rewarded by checking out Skip’s work at skiphunt:visualartist .

Michael Van der Tol has created another slide show for us, with contributions from aamora members and guests. Slip off your boots and enjoy….

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Michael Van der Tol, a founding member of aamora, was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1959 and currently lives in Stittsville, Ontario, Canada. He is primarily self-taught in photography and has been sharing what he sees for the last 10 years. His photographic work focuses on rural and urban landscapes. You can see more of Michael’s work here and enjoy his blog here.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…unless you bring a camera. Well, actually you’d not only need to bring a camera, but also figure out a way to upload the slideshow onto youtube. The whole process reminds me of the time we took some students to Washington, DC and a couple of the boys smoked a few joints in their room. We had no idea they had done this until we all got back to school and they decided to put some of the pics they took of their toking up in their locker for all their friends to see. When the school’s prince-of-a-PAL walked by he was not amused and suspended them for 10 days.

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“John Linton is a floundering member of aamora. He lives in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the state with the biggest name and smallest size.” Check out John’s other aamora posts here and see more of his work by clicking here.

Aamora acknowledges and thanks:

Michael Van der Tol for conceiving and producing”Portrait of Dreams”, the aamora members and guests who made the portraits, and their subjects who so generously shared their time and their “dreams”:

Chandra, photographed by Diane Peterson
Sarah, photographed by Catharine Amato
Crystal, photographed by Aaron Schwartz
Alexis, photographed by John Linton
Stefan, and Ronnie, both photographed by Ronnie Ginnever
D.A.Windle, photographed by Marie Wilson
Sheralee, photographed by Alexis Gerard, and
Quinna, photographed by Maura Wolfson-Foster

The song “Brake” is by Canadian artist Melissa McClelland from her “Victoria Day” album.

(If you would prefer an alternative to viewing the slide show in the window above, try viewing it by clicking here.)

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Michael Van der Tol, a founding member of aamora, was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1959 and currently lives in Stittsville, Ontario, Canada. He is primarily self-taught in photography and has been sharing what he sees for the last 10 years. His photographic work focuses on rural and urban landscapes. You can see more of Michael’s work here and enjoy his blog here.