News

Aa collection of essays exploring the lives of a playwright, an artist, a filmmaker, an outlaw, and a dog.

A journalist plunges into the underworld of Paris in 1885, searching for the elusive man who founded the International Red Cross and who has lived homeless, without a trace for twenty years. With this story, Searching For Henri, Richard Stanford opens his new collection, Chance Does Not Exist, elaborating on the themes of missed opportunities, the inevitability of change and the powerful but fragmentary quality of memory. People are on journeys in these stories: two cousins, with temperaments so opposite they live in different worlds, drive in The Chevy Belair through a blizzard to a unique destination; in Jailbirds, a man fascinated with photography gets a job building a prison museum only to travel through time to discover the most inhumane of its acquisitions. Thieves, artists, journalists, wanderers, are the people who populate these stories, so expect the unexpected.

Three of my photos
“Monsieur Leduc’s Contemplation”,
“Shhh…” and “Emma, play some Mozart”

will be on exhibit at OPUS 9

at The Abbey for the Arts
21489 Butternut Lane
Glen Nevis, On.

May 10 - June 28, 2014

Vernissage Saturday, May 10th
From 12 Noon to 4 PM

HISTORY is a collection of black-and-white photographs. HISTORY is about the homes people have left behind on the side of the highway; the careless marks they have left on a city’s walls; the remembrance statues they have carved; the dreams of childhood and of walking; and History.
Over the past thirty years Richard Stanford’s photos have been exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Skelly Gallery, Workshop Gallery, Critical Eye Gallery, Arbor Gallery, and Cornwall Regional Art Gallery. The photos are also a bridge from the days of silver nitrate to digital c-print photography; so too History.

One day, or night, someone in each of these farmhouses sealed the windows, closed the curtains, looked around the empty rooms, stepped out the front door and locked it shut. They turned and walked away, leaving behind the laughter of ghosts and the memories of birthdays, funerals, Easters and Christmases.
Their reasons for leaving may have been dramatic or mundane – maybe nothing more than moving down the road to a more modern farmhouse. It may also have been bankruptcy or death. Whatever their reasons were, the home they left behind is a frozen moment in the life of that family – a portrait of the moment of departure.
Unlike abandoned homes in the city that quickly become victims of the wrecking-ball, farmhouses are left as a testament to the endurance, labours, and memories of the families who worked the land. Not only have the homes been left to stand but in some cases someone returns regularly to mow the lawn. This seems to be not only an attempt to ward off Nature’s...

Richard Stanford tells many stories in his book of 27 colour and black-and-white photographs. The stories are short, each told in one line and one photo. The rest is in the imagination. They tell different stories of rural life, ones that are left literally on the side of the road throughout southern Québec and Ontario.

The next time you are driving through what you think is a rural wasteland, this book will make you slow down, stop, and reconsider.

One day, or night, someone in each of these farmhouses sealed the windows, closed the curtains, looked around the empty rooms, stepped out the front door and locked it shut. They turned and walked away, leaving behind the laughter of ghosts and the memories of birthdays, funerals, Easters and Christmases.

Whether they are out in the middle of a field or aside the highway that was not meant to be or at the end of a dirt road or surrounded by woodlot, silent and alone, they are now and forever human...

This is a Virtual Exhibit assembled exclusively for my blog at: www.rsstanford.com It includes recent photographs and collages on the theme of Monuments.

Five of Richard Stanford's black-and-white prints are on exhibit at the Abby For the Arts in Glen Nevis, Ontario. Four of the prints are from his Wall Series of urban landscapes. The other print is taken from his Family Portraits series of abandoned farmhouses.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Richard Stanford
450-458-7116
rstanford@bell.net

“FAMILY PORTRAITS” A UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK ON RURAL LIFE


Richard Stanford tells many stories in his book of 27 colour and black-and-white photographs. The stories are short, each told in one line and one photo. The rest is entirely in the imagination. They tell different stories of rural life, ones that are left literally on the side of the road throughout southern Québec and Ontario.
The next time you are driving through what you think is a rural wasteland, this book will make you slow down, stop, and reconsider.

For further information contact:
Richard Stanford
450-458-7116
rstanford@bell.net