Photo District News recently gave me an interesting challenge. I was asked to illustrate the basic tasks that photographers accomplish daily such as capture, retouch, and print. The small series that came out of it focuses on a central character, based upon a design by legendary toy artist Eric So.
So is one of the founders of the Urban Vinyl movement that arose out of Hong Kong in the mid-1990s. He, along with friend and colleague Michael Lau, worked to reinvent toy design as a medium for artistic and personal expression. In the years since, So’s work has been chronicled by publications such as the New York Times and exhibited internationally from Tokyo to London. His vision has become a cornerstone of the worldwide artistic movement centered on toys. Featuring a distortedly stylized approach to anatomy, So’s method focuses on observing, reflecting, and refracting everyday life.
As the end of 2010 looms, I look forward to a number of new and exciting projects. On the horizon are more insanely fun commercial assignments, work with fellow board members to re-launch the Platform Animation Festival, and a personal project that has taken years to develop. It's my pleasure to finally reveal it.
WAR-TOYS is a new photo essay and documentary film that will begin production in early 2011. The project is the culmination of fourteen years of independent work and artistic development. It began as a small study that I photographed for an exhibition in Zagreb in the immediate aftermath of the Croatian War of Independence. However, it’s only now that I’ve experienced enough to fully realize the potential of the project and the power of toys.
Using principles of play and art therapy, WAR-TOYS will use location toy photography to explore unseen accounts of war, given firsthand by children living in its day-to-day reality. For the project, I will be traveling to Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank to gather individual stories of conflict through cooperation with local humanitarian organizations and collaboration with children under their care. The outcome will be a series of photographs that are essentially art directed by a representative group, providing an interpretive account of witnessed events and commentary on socioeconomic conditions through the use of locally acquired toys, seen against the conditions in which these children live.
The process of creating these photographs will be interwoven into the WAR-TOYS documentary as an element of a much larger story. The course of gathering individual accounts will reveal the work of humanitarian organizations providing psychosocial support and the struggles of individual children under their care. The film will include interviews with selected children and their caretakers, intimate vérité scenes of children in their homes and communities, factual information on the traumatic events they have witnessed, and the effects of play and art therapy on their lives.
To fund the independent production of WAR-TOYS, a fundraising campaign launches today via the project's fiscal sponsor - Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts service organization. Thanks to their support, contributions in behalf of WAR-TOYS may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. The campaign's goal of $30,000 seeks to cover the cost of the initial, proof of concept shoot in early 2011.
The WAR-TOYS project will begin by focusing on one humanitarian organization offering psychosocial and psycho-trauma assistance in the Arab section of East Jerusalem. I will be spending four weeks working with the Spafford Children's Center, its dedicated staff, and local children under their care.
For more information on Spafford, I invite you to check out an August 2009 PBS news feature on the center.
For more information on WAR-TOYS, please visit the project's website or its campaign page on Fractured Atlas.
Thanks for your support,
Brian
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