David Finkelman (1986-2014) - Photographer

Edmonton, Canada

David Finkelman (1986-2014) was an artist, musician, and radio producer. In his early photography, Dave’s subjects are hard and inert structures, usually of some mundane or obscure purpose. From unyielding power boxes and barred-off barren lots, Dave managed to communicate tender and meditative images full of dignity. In a 2011 photograph, the bent inner rod of a traffic post juts out of the concrete like a stalk of grass doubled over in the wind. In this unexceptional scene of disrepair, Dave suggests something of noble significance, titling it “Sundial”. This interest in activating the deep potential of common and overlooked things was essential to Dave’s worldview, in which scraps of metal moonlighted as musical instruments and the experimentations of punk musicians gained airplay on his radio show, Big A little a.

Dave’s later rolls of film show a continued interest in his earlier themes, but also introduce signs of life theretofore absent: water, flowers, and his only portraiture. A domestic scene of two forks on a plate submerged in sink water implies human connection; a photograph of his partner’s face looks spontaneous and intimate, a marked development from the stolid geometry of his earlier photos. Included in these final rolls are variations on a self-portrait in which he is multiplied in a system of mirrors. Accompanied only by flowers and his camera, he is otherwise naked. These final photographs investigate interior spaces with calm and confidence, allowing autobiography into the work by integrating himself plainly.

Among many other activities outside of photography, Dave was a student in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta; host of Big A little a as well as Darkness of My Soul on CJSR radio; guitarist, writer, and trumpeter for Energetic Action; and label manager for Energetic Action Recordings.

Photos provided through Dave’s family via Alex McKie, bio write up by Keaton Bassett