Peter Wiholm

Writer / Photographer / Filmmaker

About
News
Contact
Texts
Photos
Films

Experimental
Nature
People
Urban

A promotional photo for a project by The Playwrights Guild of Canada. The project was dedicated to raising funds for South African female playwrights and the guild wanted photos of women of various ethnicities writing longhand. This was my contribution.

One of a series of promotional photos of rock artist Doug Harrison (Slug Comparison). The session was requested by the folks at Spanish music magazine This Is Rock who needed an image to go along with their interview with Doug. The location was a dingy basement and the dramatic light was set up for maximum rock star effect.

The fish market in Bagamoyo is an intense place. Makeshift rooftops are propped up by rickety sticks and fires are burning here and there seemingly beyond control. The thick layer of dust and dirt covering everything is occasionally whisked up in the air by the breeze and along with the wretched stench of half-rotting fish it makes breathing a daunting prospect. And yet the people working and living here do so with plenty of energy and enthusiasm, perhaps motivated by the necessity of selling the fish quickly before it turns to putrid goop in the unrelenting heat.

I rarely work in black and white since colour is such a useful tool for conveying emotion and it's a shame to give it up, but this image seemed to scream for the b&w treatment. The man is hanging onto a ladder thirty metres up in the air on the side of a giant crane, and the tube on his back is what I used to carry around enlargements of my photos. I really like the intensity of his stare since it captures the danger of the situation.

It is a wonderous experience to walk around the crater of an active volcano. Burning hot gasses are spewing out through cavities in the ground here and there, and clouds of steam sweep in without warning only to vanish again just as quickly. These three wanderers were caught in the haze on their way up to the rim, and despite being so far away, their body language is beautifully expressive.

No Vancouverite will be surprised that this image was shot in Vancouver. Pot is even more common in this BC city than the skunks that emit a similar-smelling odour. I've always wondered why the smokers tilt their head backwards when they suck out the last precious fumes from an ever-diminishing cigarette butt. Perhaps it has something to do with not getting smoke up their noses, but I'm leaning more toward it being a blissful gesture of pure pleasure. Since drugs aren't my cup of tea though, I guess I'll never know for sure.

If you visit some of the tiniest villages in northwestern India you might come across the Bishnoi people. These friendly and modest farmers believe in the teachings of Guru Jambheshwar who wanted to protect and live in harmony with nature. Their huts are made of mud and their food is eco-sustainable, and despite their striking poverty they seem to have a great deal of joy in their lives. Rarely did I get so warmly welcomed as when I visited the people in this picture in their small community outside Jodphur.

Every spring in the Indian state of Rajasthan it is time for the Gangaur festival, a big and joyful celebration where women worship the deity Gauri and ask her for good health, a long life and a happy married life. The streets get flooded with people and families of all ages and many women carry large ornate lamps with decidedly unsafe wiring. It is a loud, unruly and chaotic street party but also a happy and colourful one.

The Karni Mata Temple in Deshnoke is a truly unusual place. Nevermind its grand architecture or isolated location; what really sets it apart is its inhabitants. Rats. And lots of them. You may not enter the temple unless you're barefoot and if you manage to get through without having at least a few of the more than twenty-thousand rodents running over your feet you can consider yourself lucky. Or unlucky, as the locals would see it. In their view it is a great honour to have been touched by the rats and an even greater honour to eat from food that they have nibbled on. Yum.

One thing about India that may come across as surprising is that the stereotypical gender roles in the work market often seem to be reversed. Women are often seen doing hard manual labour in the fields while men seem to dominate service jobs such as cleaners or servers. Even crafts that require precision-work are more often done by men than women. This man, from a small town outside Jodhpur, is patiently and skillfully weaving a carpet while a village elder looks on.

Any trick is fair game when trying to attract customers in the Point-A-Pitre market, as this woman's colourful wig so joyfully demonstrates. Her extravagant earrings and larger-than-life personality probably don't hurt either, at least unless the customers have a tendency to be intimidated.

The first of a triptych from the annual Hamamatsu Kite Festival, this is a photo that really speaks to me. Even though his own kite has dropped from the sky long ago and is now resting on the sand at the end of the horizontal rope, the man still seems to have high-flying dreams. The multitude of kites dotting the sky behind him perfectly underscore the serenity and harmony of the moment.

For being a country that so greatly values peace and harmony, Japan can be awfully noisy. Trucks drive around at night with people yelling propaganda through bullhorns, pachinko parlors and arcades rattle and beep at a deafening volume and beneath it all is a constant urban cacophony. When it gets overwhelming it's nice to retreat to one of the many shinto shrines found throughout every city. They may not block out every sound, but their soothing colours and architecture make them an oasis of tranquility and reflection.

When I saw this vendor of dried fruit and nuts I immediately thought of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age in the 1600s. The headscarf (Xian has a sizeable muslim population), the dress, the pose, the light, the colours, just the whole scene in general; it all led my thoughts to Rembrandt and his colleagues. Only the bare lightbulb dangling from a simple wire and the subtle shine of the plastic wrappers give it away. So who needs a time machine when you have amazing places like this one right here in the 2000s?

The floating market on the Mekong River exists almost exclusively thanks to a loophole in the tax legislation. If nobody sets foot on land when they sell and buy products, the trade is exempt from taxes. The result is a vibrant commercial community spread across hundreds of little makeshift boats overloaded with fruit and other locally grown or manufactured products. It is quite a spectacle to observe how the vessels pull up along each other and the crews toss melons and other edibles from one deck to the next. They'd better watch their step though, because falling in the water would probably give you a mouthful of raw sewage and other nastiness that's floating along this polluted river.

Those who are unfamiliar with Vancouver will likely be surprised to learn that more than 50% of the population does not speak English as their first language and an impressive 30% are of Chinese heritage. This photo is a promotional shot for Loretta Seto's short film Once A Fish which is centered around the Chinese festival Qingming and features actresses Winnie Hung and Bernice Chu playing sisters at odds with each other.

The second photo from my Hamamatsu Kite Festival triptych; this shot is visually interesting to me thanks to all the intersecting lines but I also find it quite funny. Probably the man on the scaffolding wouldn't agree with me since he had to climb several metres high in flimsy flip-flops only to face the daunting task of untangling the kite equivalent of a multi-car pile up, but he couldn't stop me from immortalizing the moment.

The people of Dar es-Salaam are generally not too happy about being photographed so if you're aiming a camera at someone and don't want to get punched in the face you'd be wise to keep a safe distance. Sometimes that can result in a pretty nice shot though, as in this case. The young man perched on the rooftop seemed perfectly content sitting up there pondering life, which I found both nice and enviable.

In the Tanzanian capital you can do nearly any kind of shopping without leaving the comfort of your car. Street vendors show up at pretty much every single red light and sell everything from food and drinks to clothes, newspapers, toys and much more. I even saw one vendor selling whole Christmas trees in the middle of the summer. The vendors' lives are tough as they face stiff competition, a harsh sun and a rejection rate way above 99%. Every time they make a successful sale you can tell by their expression that it means the world.

This is the third and final image in my Hamamatsu Kite Festival triptych and it has a lot more intensity than the other two (Kite Dreams and Tangled). You probably wouldn't have thought that grown men could be so completely absorbed by the art of flying a kite but as is evidenced by these emotional faces it is no laughing matter. The kite flyers spend most of the year perfecting the kites and when the day of the festival arrives it is absolutely crucial that everything goes off without a hitch. A failed flight means loss of face, which in Japan is not taken lightly.

I'm quite proud of this picture since it has the kind of fairytale quality that is so sought-after and yet so elusive to any photographer. The ethereal cloud of steam, the fallen trees strewn about like broken matchsticks, the subtle arc running through the forest and last but not least the light feminine step and graceful posture... It's the kind of scene I like to come back to and reexperience whenever I'm feeling stressed or blue.

© 2023 Peter Wiholm. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy