EXORCISM 08

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Egor

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6

Eight issues of ULTRAsomething magazine, and apparently it’s still not enough to screw in a lightbulb. How many more will it take? I’m determined to keep publishing until I find the answer. Frankly, it would be helpful if they could screw in a lightbulb, because EXORCISM 08 continues my penchant for using an abundance of black ink — an aesthetic not exactly appreciated by my printer.

Particulars

Tradition dictates I enumerate all the various cameras that were coerced into helping produce the images within each new issue, though I’m considering eliminating this particular affectation — after all, does anyone actually care besides me? But since I already have all the EXORCISM 08 data right here in front of me, I might as well share it one more time: 19 cameras were scathed in the making of this issue, including a couple of digital cameras.

Specifically: Contax G1; Fuji Natura Black 1.9; Fujica Drive; Konica C35; Konica Hexar AF; Leica M10 Monochrom; Minolta TC-1; Nikon 28Ti; Nikon FE; Olympus M-1; Olympus OM-3Ti; Olympus XA; OM Digital OM-1; Pentax 17; Pentax MX; Pentax MZ-S; Pentax Optio I-10; Pentax PC35 AF-M; Rollei 35AF.

It’s fewer cameras than I used for many of the previous issues (except for EXORCISM 07, which was limited to only the cameras I had with me in Tokyo), but it’s still rather excessive. However, I assure you not all these cameras are mine — a couple were borrowed and/or being tested. So on a 1-to-10 insanity scale, I’m probably only a “9” and not a “10” as such a list might imply.

Apologia

Tradition also dictates that I publish the exorcism’s apologia, which appears at the end of each magazine. So without further ado, here it is:

These photos are culled from late 2024 and early 2025, and were shot mostly on the streets of Vancouver Canada — though a smattering were taken elsewhere during minor fits of vehicular wanderlust.

From a photographic standpoint, as long as I’m ensconced in an urban environment, it doesn‘t really matter where I am — my photographic motivations remain the same, regardless of location. The benefit of travel, even if it’s only somewhere just beyond the practical limits of my footwear, is it reveals new visual stimuli, so there’s less of the “Oh, I’ve already photographed this a dozen times” problem.

Fortunately, Vancouver is ever-changing and ever-evolving, so yesterday’s streets were different than today’s, which will be different from tomorrow’s. My job is simply to be here, there, or anywhere — with eyes open and camera in hand.

Marketing Mumbo Jumbo

And finally, in keeping with another tradition — trying to market the damn thing — I shall remind you that EXORCISM 08 is now available for purchase from the ULTRAsomething STORE. Get it before it sells out… And yes, it’s been known to happen.

EXORCISM 08

© 2025 grEGORy simpson

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Comments

6 responses to “EXORCISM 08”

  1. Hugh Rigley Avatar
    Hugh Rigley

    Remember Journey’s “Don’t stop believin’” I believe it won the best Rock song ever.
    It does not follow the song writing formula of its day. The vocal by “Steve Perry” is other worldly, certainly to me.

    “The song was essentially written backwards, starting with the chorus and then building the rest of the song towards it.” “The band wanted to create a song that would build to the powerful and uplifting feeling of the chorus”

    Anyway my point is keep doing what you do until you take your last breath. And don’t stop believin’. You are an artist! They won greatest Rock hit ever by not following the herd. To me you appear to be that guy.

    Cheers

    1. Egor Avatar
      Egor

      Thanks, Hugh. “Doing things backwards” definitely fits my modus operandi, though I have yet to realize any tangible benefit from it. 😉 Thanks for the kind words.

  2. godfrey digiorgi Avatar
    godfrey digiorgi

    Always a pleasure to see your photos and enjoy your Deep Thoughts! … 😉
    My brain seems stuck on “42” of late. grazie! G

    1. Egor Avatar
      Egor

      Well, 42 is the ultimate answer. If only I could figure out the ultimate question.

  3. Shaun Avatar
    Shaun

    Enjoying Exorcism 08, my first issue. Can you share any of your process of editing and sequencing? It’s a process I spin my wheels on and can never quite finish. With 72 image there are 72! factoral possibilities of image combinations. How to choose?

    1. Egor Avatar
      Egor

      Hi Shaun: Thanks for the purchase! Sequencing these magazines is one of my favourite parts of the whole process, since entirely different narratives can be formed from entirely different sequencing. For me there are two main factors that go into the sequencing: One is to create a sort of overall narrative, like a story arc. This is more a feeling than anything tangible. Like, maybe it starts dark, then gets light, or something like that. The other is the page pairings. Since most of my photos are vertical, I take a lot of care in placing two photos together in a spread — they need to work together as a whole in some way. It sounds like a black art, but I find it fun. The best part is there’s no right pairing, since different pairings bring out different emotions.

      So when it comes time to prepare another Exorcism, I’ll comb through all the photos I took the previous few months and select around 100 for the possibility pool. There’s usually around 20 that HAVE to go in the magazine, so I’ll start with those — looking at them as a whole and trying to figure out if, as a collective, they convey any sort of unified theme. Maybe they’re funny. Or sunny. Or dark. Or weird. Or fractured. Once I determine how the group of photos makes me feel, I’ll start combing through the others in the pool and find the photos that seem to support the underlying theme, or that strengthen some other photo in the pool by simply sitting beside it.

      I discovered many many years ago, that the strongest collection is not the one that contains the “best” photos, but the one that contains the most cohesive collection of photos, and the best flow. That’s part of the reason I start with a pool that contains roughly twice as many photos as the final magazine will contain. It can sometimes be difficult to reject some of your favourite photos in sacrifice of a “lesser” photo, but you need to keep in mind that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And that often the “best” photos are made better by their association with those photos around it.

      All of this is why I consider photos BOOKS to be the ultimate destination for photographs (and not a print on a wall — unless it’s a gallery show, of course). Their ability to work together to create a narrative (whether real or manufactured) is kind of my driving force.

      Hope this helps. Probably doesn’t. :-p

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