More press for flora&fauna.

There's been a whirlwind of press around Pauline Siu's eco-fashion line flora&fauna the past couple weeks. Much deserved attention as f&f debuted their Fall 09 collection at Vancouver Fashion Week.

flora&fauna (and my photos) were featured in the Vancouver Sun, Scout Magazine, and the Georgia Straight. Shots of the clippings are on flora&fauna's blog.

Congratulations Pauline!

t-shirts.

I'm looking for people to help me out with a new project. It involves you, your t-shirts, and changing them as fast as you can. The process is kind of fun, albeit superfluous, but it's really about documenting and learning where our clothing comes from and where it's made.

If I get enough people to make a decent data range, hopefully I can put together some wizzy bar graphs and maps and such.

So far I'm the only one, so if you would like to take part and are in the Vancouver area let me know.

View the full gallery here.

Okay, so it's been a while.

So wow, my last post was in November and it's nearly March. So either it appears I've been up to a lot, or not much at all.

In reality, it's been a bit of both. Busy with some print design, product photography, a fashion shoot, and getting more into web design. But there's been some space in between where I haven't been up to much, just a lot of research and continuing to learn (and looking for work obviously).

It's a hard time to be a freelancer, especially when it's your first foray into the freelance world. The hardest thing for a first-time freelancer to get used to is the uncertainty and instability, and what that does to you psychologically. The second hardest thing is getting clients, and therefore work. So unless you're this guy, it's a difficult thing to do.

It is especially difficult when you see where the photography industry is going at all levels. Every year that goes by it gets harder for photographers, and doesn't look likely to improve. So at least thankfully I can do a variety of things together or separately, which is fine by me, I enjoy it all.

I hope to write a little more from now on, no more three month gaps.

Granville magazine.

I've got a photo in the Winter 08 issue of Granville magazine, no photo credit of course. But if you'd like to check it out it's available at Whole Foods, Capers, and MEC in the lower mainland.

Congratulations to flora&fauna for the much deserved press!

Congratulations Tiffany.

I want to say congratulations to my friend Tiffany Poirier for publishing her first children's book Q is for Question: An ABC of Philosphy. A teacher specializing in philosophy for children, she's written and illustrated a fantastic book introducing kids to the integral questions in philosophy.

I helped out in my way by photographing her illustrations and colour correcting them, so I'm also excited to see it in print.

The book is available for pre-order at Amazon, .ca .com or .co.uk, where ever you happen to be.

Congratulations Tiffany.

flora&fauna website launch.

Since I don't have a blog for my design work (and probably won't), I decided it would be great to post it here. Plus you can follow the link and see more of my photography work in the collections tab of the site.

It's been a great and rewarding experience designing the site, so I hope you enjoy it.

Go and check out flora&fauna's wonderful clothing.

A fantastic model.

A visit to the Vancouver Aquarium last weekend was a great experience. A nice break from the everyday, and a chance to see some spectacular wildlife.

The jellyfish however were wonderful models, and a graphic designers living dream. Lines and shape and texture languidly floating through space.

A million pictures.

I just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's book "A Man Without A Country". It's enjoyable, and an enjoyably quick read as well. A great little book with great insight.

But right at the end there is some great insight for any visual artist or appreciator of visual art. (or of any art come to think of it, but it's simpler this way.) It isn't even something Vonnegut said or wrote. He had asked the painter Syd Solomon how to tell a good picture from a bad one. He said, "Look at a million pictures, and you can never be mistaken."


Now that should take care of the complaints I've been getting to update my blog. I apologize that I haven't been keeping it up to date. Hopefully you'll hear more from me soon.

Sun & Surf.

What could be better? The sun shining on your face, the ocean lapping at your feet, and a flash perfectly rim lighting your hair.

It may sound ideal, but the sun wasn't enough warmth, and the water cold enough to make your toes hurt if you stood in it too long. But it's all part of the job as we worked away on the flora&fauna photoshoot.

We were blessed with a good break in the weather as we used up our only rain date. We all got up bright and early and were out by the water as the sun continually ducked in and out of the clouds. It was a great shoot and went smoothly thanks to everyone involved. Pauline Siu, creator of flora&fauna, Hayley Snarlidge did amazing hair, Savannah Larsen did a beautiful job with make-up, Kyle Little was my unsung assistant, and of course our model Kimiko Yoshida did a fantastic job.

Here's a little taster of the shoot and of the Spring 09 flora&fauna line.



Here's an outtake from the shoot as well. The tide was coming in pretty quick as were finishing up on the beach and headed into the forest for the second half of the shoot. So I had my assistant Kyle hold one of the flashes so we could keep moving with the water.

Can't take the design out of the boy.

I've been getting a lot of inquiries lately about graphic design work, but since I haven't been focused on design for the last while I didn't have a site to show. (except for a pretty old site which I won't give the address for.)

That's all changed now though. I've really focused this week and worked out something that I'm really proud of. I'm also really looking forward to keeping both sides of my professional life engaged, and allowing them to creatively influence each other.

Although it still doesn't have any work up yet (that will come soon), I think it's a great site that I hope you check out.

clifford-design.com

End of an odyssey?

It's been a couple weeks now, but I am back in Vancouver after traveling around the North and Southwest states for nearly 2 months. Camping in my Westfalia in snow and sand, giant redwoods and sage brush, experiencing brutal colds and brain melting heat. It has been an eye opening experience professionally, but even more so personally.


View Larger Map

Originally I had planned on passing through Vancouver a few times as I criss-crossed the continent. I didn't think much about the total cost of gas as I went, I just knew where I wanted to go and it just takes gas to get there. However, thinking ahead about driving across Canada to Ontario I realized that it was going to cost quite a bit to do it.

Unfortunately I've had to end the trip and sell my home on wheels. I'm going to be settling in Vancouver again, but hopefully I will be able to head out onto the road at various points to explore the continent in smaller excursions.

Here is a little recap of some images I've captured throughout the trip.


: : Graffiti on a railroad bridge in Whitefish, Montana.


: : Cow between train cars outside of East Glacier, Montana.


: : A frozen Jackson Lake below the Tetons in mid-May.


: : A jet steering clear of a tree in Jackson, Wyoming.


: : Clochette the shaved sheepdog.


: : Earthship outside of Taos, New Mexico. (see the Paul Frank-esque monkey face?)


: : Home sweet home, west of Telluride, Colorado.


: : Dry lake bed in Nevada. (the haze is from the wild fires in California)


: : A scale replica of my van, next to some giant redwoods in California.


: : A helicopter ride from Newport, Oregon. Why not.

I'd like to thank my very supportive friends and family, and all the people I've met that have helped make this journey so much more enjoyable.

The paradox of our time.

From a song by The Mammals called Industrial Park. From my limited research it seems the last paragraph came from Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell speech, but I'm not entirely sure where the rest came from.

It seems that spending a lot of time on the road traveling alone increases the resonance of messages like this. This always was a beautiful song to me, but really is powerful when you're out there in the world feeling empowered and vulnerable at the same time.

I am done with great things and big things
Great institutions and big success
And I am for those tiny, invisible, molecular, moral forces
That work from individual to individual through the crannies of the world
Like so many rootlets
Or like the capillary oozing of water
Yet which, if you give them time
Will rend the hardest monuments of man's pride

The paradox of our time in history
Is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers
We have wider freeways but narrower viewpoints
We spend more but we have less
We buy more but we enjoy it less
We have bigger houses and smaller families
More conveniences and less time
We have more degrees but less depth
More knowledge but less judgment
More experts but more problems
More medicine but less wellness

Disarmament with mutual honor and confidence is a continuing imperative
Together we must learn how to compose differences
Not with arms but with intellect and decent purpose
Another war could utterly destroy this civilization
Which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years
We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence
Whether sought or unsought
By the military industrial complex

The world's toughest bicycle race.

I'm sure a lot non-cyclists are unaware of a race that's been around for 27 years and traverses the US across 3000 miles from coast to coast. It's called the Race Across America (RAAM), and this year was the first year for a sub-component of the race called the Race Across the West (RAW). The RAW is a 1000 mile race from Oceanside, CA to Taos, NM covering most of the climbing, the hottest places, and the highest point on the RAAM course.

How I ended up involved with the race was a situation of someone I met, knew someone who knew someone else, who referred me to a racer in need of a crew. Murray Wilmerding is a solo racer in the 50-59 category for the Race Across the West, racing for Team Zap USA.



The race was an intense, inspiring, and brutally tiring experience. For Murray as well as the crew. The crew being myself and cyclist Rob Barnard packed into a VW Golf loaded down with all the gear, food and clothing for three people. Sleeping across the front seats, sprawled in the little space left on top of bags and coolers, and mostly in Murray's case just sleeping on any open space on the ground.



This psuedo vagabonding across the country allows for a lot of interesting experiences. Near hallucinogenic experiences where time and days mean nothing. Swimming in canals, herding goats, and getting used to the stares as we lay out in parking lots across the western US.

As much as attitudes towards cyclists are changing across the continent, there were still incidents of motorists following within feet and passing within inches. At least it's a far cry from things being thrown and getting run off the road. In fact, it seems more and more people are getting interested in cycling,. I hope it isn't only because of the rising gas prices, but an interest in health and well being.



The best thing about this race is that it takes participants to places most travelers don't see. The small towns that occasionally interrupt the beautiful landscapes whether they be endless farmland and ranches or unspoiled wilderness. It's a race that reveals all that America still is, in it's endless variety.

Unreal Landscapes.

I went to a shopping centre in Broomfield, CO a few days ago. Typically I avoid malls and any place larger than an airplane hangar, but sometimes it's just the only place you can go.

This place however made it really sink in, how bizarre and unreal these places are. The scale of the buildings, parking lots, and the shear sprawl requiring a shuttle to take you around are not on a human scale. The parallel for me was the large and beautiful temples, churches and pyramids around the world exalting any number of gods where the scale and beauty serve a purpose. Whether you believe in that purpose or not, at least they are architecturally beautiful.

Do these buildings serve a similar purpose? Exalting their brand on high.

Beyond that, and even more superficial, is that the architecture and design of these places is nearly offensive. As if a company that designs office cubicle furniture decided to become an urban planner. Creating fake roads, fake walkways, unusable and superficial green spaces dwarfed by coloured concrete and steel facades.

These places are so commonplace that we don't even notice them anymore, it's just a part of life. I'm going to try to take a different look at these places and try to show the absurdity inherent in them with a photo series I'm calling 'Unreal Landscapes'. If anyone has any tips on good places to check out in North America let me know.

I want to have control.

I was watching some great photo documentaries on MediaStorm tonight and came across this. It's a fantastic animation for a fantastic song. I've probably listened to Radiohead's Creep a hundred times, but a couple lines really stuck out to me on this listen.

I don't care if it hurts,
I want to have control.

It's reminded me of the sacrifice that it takes to do what you want to do in life. Not that you ever really get to do what you always want to do, but to be in a position where you can do what you want to do some of the time, or maybe half the time, is a pretty good place to be.