Matt-Gibson.org

Archive for October, 2009

Wang Yeh Burning Boat Festival Taiwan

The Wang Yeh boat burning festival occurs once every three years. Disease spreading ghosts, or Wang Yeh, are lead onto the boats by priests and mediums. The boat, sitting atop a mountain of ghost money (money burned by locals for the benefit of their dead ancestors) is then burned, sending the spirits back to their [...]

ImageiNation II November 14th – 29th

The date for ImageiNation II has been set. Come down to the Underbridge Lounge in Tainan on Saturday, November 14th for the opening night celebration. The show will feature photography by Chris Scott (http://www.exilephotography.com), Steven Vigar (http://www.stevenvigar.com), Garret Clarke (http://www.garretmclarke.com), Wei Hsang Lee, Taiwan Rose, and myself.
The photographers are great, and the display promises to [...]

Riding the Crocodile

The Crocodile King Farm in Taiwan’s Madou Township is the most bizarre zoo I’ve ever seen. Exhibits include a random cross section of exotic animals from Taiwan and around the world, an extensive collection of reptiles, and a large number of mutant animals including two mutant goats, several mutant ducks and chickens, and a two-headed turtle. The main attraction, though, is an enormous crocodile, which may well be the fattest crocodile in the world, on which visitors are invited to sit. You can view a gallery of my pictures from the zoo here.

Bunk Magazine Issue V – Call for Submissions

Six years after the last issue was released (December 2003), the owner of the Armory, Dumei has asked me to help her make another issue of Bunk to commemorate the Armory’s 12th anniversary this December.
For those of you who never got to see Bunk, it was a small, artsy magazine put out by a group [...]

Portfolio

A gallery of my favorite photographs including selections from Taiwan, Japan, Los Angeles and Guatemala.

Crocodile King Exotic Mutant Animal Farm

A photo essay I shot on a trip to the Madou Crocodile King farm, a small private zoo in Tainan County, Taiwan, that features various exotic and mutated animals and one gigantic crocodile. The crocodile, stuck in a tiny pen for several years, has become extremely fat. Seriously. The largest crocodile ever recorded was 8.6 m long and weighed 1,350 kg. This croc, according to the sign, was 5.2 m long and 1250 kg, which puts it in the running for the fattest croc in the world. It’s so fat and slow that you can walk up behind it and sit on it. We did. Check it out.

The Kenting Aquarium

A short photo essay that I shot on a trip to the the world renowned National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium in Pingtung County, Southern Taiwan. Unfortunately, the light in the aquarium is very low, and flash photography is prohibited, so was a tough shoot, but I got some good pretty good pictures including [...]

ImageiNation II

I’m going to be taking part in the ImageiNation II photography show some other well-known local photographers including Steven Vigar (http://www.stevenvigar.com) and Garret Clarke (http://www.garretmclarke.com). Following the success of the first show, this show is being organized by Chris Scott and hosted by the Underbridge Lounge in Tainan, Taiwan. The format of the show is [...]

Christmas in Good Ol’ Cranbrook

Well, since leaving Taiwan things have gone pretty much as planned. Since arriving home in good ol’ Cranbrook I’ve:
Shoveled the driveway like nine times
Been subjected to more country music than any living creature should ever be exposed to
Purchased travel insurance and been vaccinated
Helped my friend catch her dog when it ran away
Eaten steak almost [...]

Living Under the Volcano

Well, I finally arrived in Guatemala. When I say finally I mean that I arrived after:
- A twelve hour bus ride from Cranbrook to the Calgary airport (don’t even ask why it took so long).
- Two hours of sleep.
- Two hours detained by a mongoloid U.S. customs officer for no reason. The guy said he [...]

Why I Travel

A short humorous essay by Matt Gibson about the nature of travel, independence, freedom, travel scams and chicken busses.

Advice that I Gave a Graphic Designer that Worked for My Indie Magazine in Taiwan

Note: This is just a little humor piece that I wrote for submission to McSweeneys.net, but was not picked up. Please note that it is not true. All of the graphic designers at Xpat were of the highest moral standing. Ok, well, maybe not that high. But they were certainly above feeding ladyboys roofies (as [...]