Blog
www.saatchionline.com
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I caved,,,,
Based on the recommendation of my friend David Glickman I decided to upload some of my images on the website www.saatchionline.com . I felt confident that they would produce good quality prints without too much hassle and even deliver and handle all of the mechanics.
Please visit often and check out my portal. If you see something on this website and you would like to also purchase it on Saatchionline, please let me know and I can upload it for you to purchase it.
thanks
LINKS
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From time to time I create other galleries for friends and family. These are project or event specific and I thought this could be a good place for these links to reside.
Here is one of the first tests that I put together, some nature shots
http://henrihadidaca.fatcow.com/unaturalyspeaking/nature/index.html
Some family stuff
http://henrihadidaca.fatcow.com/GRAJCAR/grajcar
These images should have their own Gallery, i put this together quickly and figured this was a good way to show these off:
http://henrihadida.com/artforsale/GRAPHIC%20EXPOSURE/
Here is a great shoot of Zac Monson’s band Armstrong Friday:
http://henrihadida.com/armstrongfriday/ilmotore/
Elsiane is a great band,,, it just happens to be my nephew Stephane Sotto and his partner Elsianne Capelete:
http://henrihadidaca.fatcow.com/ELSIANE/ElsianeSALAROSA101510
My friend Jason is a big Airsoft participant , Here is one of his events
http://henrihadida.com/invasian1/themillinvasian1/
http://henrihadida.com/invasian1/second%20invasian/
Here is my latest idea for another exhibit. I had some good reaction. Waiting for more so I can attract interest from a gallery space.
http://henrihadidaca.fatcow.com/mirrored/mirror%20first%20selection/index.html
“haute tension” the exhibit
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I am beyond excited about my new photo exhibit. Coming after 2 years of my first Montreal show, this series of images is a complete departure from my standard “fare”. The great team at Studio Beluga was gracious enough to help me present this new work in their gallery space. Here is what the curatorial statement sounds like:
The “haute tension”series is photographer Henri Hadida’s exploration of confrontational yet quotidian interaction between us and the objects that inhabit our space. He documents power lines, telephone poles and electrical transformers as they weave among tree branches and block the sky, capturing the aggression on his visual landscape by man-made interventions, exhibiting specifically those elements of his environment that go largely unnoticed.
A further dialogue about contradictions takes place: between order in society against clutter in our lives, between progress and the sanctity of our environment, and about the transition from ugly to beautiful aesthetic experiences. By considering the compositional value of his scenes, Hadida showcases the lack of consideration with which they were put there. He wonders, had we been asked, would we have allowed it?
The edits Hadida performs on his photographs flatten the images, heighten contrast, blur boundaries, and add unrealistic, fauvist colouration, emphasizing the modular grid theme that runs though the series. Some works approach pure abstraction which, when compounded with the saturated hues he chooses, emphasizes malice in the images and calls on our baser responses to be the language with which we read them. Whether it is love or hate that we feel towards them, it is experienced in opposition to the indifference that they elicit as real objects in our daily lives.
en francais sil vous plait…..
La série d’images photographiques « Haute tension » d’Henri Hadida explore notre relation avec les éléments de notre environnement urbain et la confrontation qui en découle. En photographiant les poteaux téléphoniques, les fils électriques et les transformateurs suspendus au-dessus de nos têtes, intimement mêlés aux branches des arbres, Henri Hadida révèle comment ces objets, que nous ne voyons plus, agressent subrepticement et encombrent notre panorama visuel.
Un dialogue s’ensuit sur le paradoxe de l’homme face à la nature, entre l’ordre des choses et le chaos de la vie journalière, entre le progrès et le respect de l’environnement, ainsi que sur la métamorphose de la laideur en beauté esthétique. Par son choix de cadrage, Hadida, dans son puissant manifeste, pose la question : si nous avions été consultés, aurions-nous accepté ?
Les modifications artistiques qu’Henri Hadida apporte à ses photographies nivellent les images, réhaussent le contraste et ajoutent une coloration fauviste irréelle, tout en mettant l’emphase sur le thème de l’omniprésence de ces objets dans notre patrimoine urbain. Certaines œuvres frôlent l’abstraction pure et, une fois amplifiées par un choix de couleurs intense, mettent le mal en évidence et font appel à l’instinct de celui qui regarde. Quelle que soit l’émotion qu’elles suscitent, ces images soulignent de façon quasi subliminale le paradoxe entre notre indifférence à l’égard de ces objets de notre quotidien et l’agression qu’ils représentent
I’m back… sorry for the delay
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I hate that I promised myself that I would blog on a regular basis and have not. It might too early to announce but I am preparing another exhibit. I am very excited. I hesitate on giving you a peek or building up the mystery. Someone has to advise me on the protocol. I have mentioned this project to a few of my friends and so far the response has been positive. I will confirm with the gallery very soon and i will confirm as the project moves along. This exhibit will be a departure for me from the conventional images I have been producing over the years, I am excited that I found a subject matter and theme that has raised several different initial reaction. And as always all i ask of my photography is that it should get viewers talking. For now this is all i will say.
Ave. Drolet
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For a very long time now I have wanted to collaborate with a writer. I was working with a book publisher many years ago and the poet he was publishing was intrigued by my photographs. He had started writing stories based on some of my photographs. Unfortunately that project never went further than him telling me that he was working on a few ideas.
I kept thinking that it was a good idea. In comes my new friend Richard Brunette, a very creative author with huge potential. Richard and had the same day job for several years until he decided to move on. I recently had lunch with him and told him of my brief encounter with a poet / author: He thought it was a good idea.
Here is his first effort with one of my photos from the “Montreamour ” series:
Listen for me in your sleep,
If you can hear my voice,
It means the dreams are still alive,
The dreams we had you and I.
Awake to the sound from the street,
And then you’ll make your choice,
Come to your window or hide,
And watch silently as I drive by.
If your heart is open I’ll see you wave,
I’ll park my car and make you safe.
You’ll never have to hide again,
The lonely monster will be slain,
So quicken sleep into your master,
And take your place as my passenger.
il fait aussi beau en arriere
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Il fait aussi beau en arriere
After 25 years I finally decided to put together a photo exhibit mostly for myself as an exercise in discipline.
I was fortunate to be working in a photographic lab (Proulx Brothers in Ottawa) at the time and was inspired by my working environment. I had been living with many images that I thought were worth sharing. I prepared 20 prints that I felt represented my individual perspective of what I had learned from the influences of Bob DelTredici and Henri Cartier Bresson.
Off I went back to the roots and presented the portfolio to my mentor, Bob. The reaction was favourable and the process was exhilarating. Of the original 20, Bob favoured a dozen and suggested I scour for a few more that had “the same DNA ” as the ones selected. This is where the magic happened. He had forced me to go and look at my photographs from a very focused and distinctive perspective. This helped me discover certain images that I had always liked but did not think would fit into an exhibit. My initial selection was of images that I thought would appeal to the a broader audience Bob’s advice was to concentrate on a vision, on a visual signature, on a “genetic code” within each image that would tie them all together, not by content but with what they had to reveal.
Once we had agreed on the image selection it was time to produce the prints. With a low to non-existing budget, I decided to find an alternative to frames. Proulx Brothers has some innovative mounting techniques and materials that would be cost efficient and with a little ingenuity I designed a hanging system that would be very practical for exhibiting the prints.
In the meantime a local Ottawa eatery and part time lounge (Shanghai Restaurant) had become my families’ favourite hangout and Don Kwan was eager to see my work.
The week my exhibit opened was a triple treat for me. I had debuted my weekly radio show “Photography for the ears” on CKCU Carlton University Campus radio station, and it was my birthday, the celebrating was contagious.
All in all the reaction to the show was extremely favourable. My friends, family and photography peers finally had an opportunity to witness who I was through my photography.
I was most impressed and touched with viewers’ reaction to the images and the various heartfelt comments made that vernissage evening.
9 years later almost to the day I launched this website.
As always it is my biggest joy to hear from the viewer. The exhibit is here.
The title of the exhibit “il fait aussi beau en arriere” translates to “it is as beautiful in the back” it is also the advertising panel that appears above the couple in the title photograph. 
I felt the tongue-in-cheek message the photo was giving perfectly reflected what all of the photos were saying… dig deeper and beauty is everywhere. You just need to take the time to look.
The adventure begins…
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Allright, so i think this will work. I fully understand that websites are works in progress always living and breathing as long as someone other than the author participates.
Where shall we begin, and what shall we blog about? I do not frequent other blogs in particular so for me this will be another expression of what I do and who i am. I understand the pretentiousness of it and I figure I am not hurting anyone.
I have however been given strict rules that if I start this it has to be consistent. Finally something I am forced to keep doing.
For now let’s see how this looks on the site.
Let me try to post an image here just to see what that looks like also.
