Helping friends move, picnics in parks, family faspas1, haircuts, Bike Jelly, All out for Palestine, family camping, escape rooms, 75th anniversaries, birthday parties.
Look for Queer existence. Listen to Queer voices. Live into your queer self. Stay off the tracks of hetero normative exclusionary thinking! Stay alive!
Here is David Favel, who I met one afternoon and ended up chatting with for almost an hour about his life story. At the end of the conversation I asked if I could take his photo. Afterwards I was able to print out those photos for him and he was so excited and said he was going to show his sisters the photos. Permission to share was given by David.
Started playing pick up slow pitch. Sports wow!
Bubbles and balloons.
Enough said.
My partner and sister in the pride parade.
On the way to work on morning I thought I should take a photo as the clouds almost looked like mountains in the distance.
Vimy Ridge park light.
A 61 year old cyclist was hit and killed by a motorist and around 100 cyclists shut down the intersection where it happened for an hour during rush hour. I used to live right by this intersection and would use it all the time at all hours of the day. It is truly sobering and infuriating to see the lack of cycling infrastructure and car dominant society. It could have been me.
Maybe its just that I forget how rainy June is, but I feel like this June was particularly rainy!
A gal and her milk tea.
I’ll keep taking photos of this intersection until the day I die.
FREE FREE PALESTINE
A rare photo of myself. Taken by my partner.
Buying and selling.
Bike Jelly Pride Ride. A group ride similar to Bike Jam (can you tell there is a theme here? I also just hear that there is another bike ride group calling themselves Bike Butter.)
One of several windy days.
Photo of us while family camping!
And just like that it’s summer. This exact scene was featured in my January newsletter.
Family visits!
Camp Assiniboia
One of the many photo series ideas I have is taking photos of all the murals in Winnipeg.
Faspa (also spelled vespa) is a Low German (Plattdeutsch) word which in High German is Vesper. Faspa is used in the cultures of Mennonites and their descendents who settled in Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire to describe a light lunch usually in the afternoon on weekdays and especially on Sunday. It emphasizes the fellowship of family and friends gathering for coffee or tea, zwieback or other baked food, butter, jam and may also include cheese, cold cuts, cake and cookies.
I really like your portraits Michael. Should lean into those much more I reckon. Ps, I never liked zwieback. Horrible stuff. What's your take on it?