My Grandmother was a painter. I remember going to her house on the prairies and desperately wanting to use her expensive oil paints. Her work was natural and abstract and I grew up surrounded by it. She always had paper and crayons and watercolor paints for all the children - but I was frustrated that I could never capture what my mind envisioned.
I also remember my Uncle snapping candid black and white pictures of family members. The photographs that my Uncle took are still in my parents' collection to this day, and freeze forever moments in time.
My passion for mechanical things and for aviation occupied most of my teen years and the camera hobby took a back seat until I was in my late twenties. I was living in Yellowknife, NT, with my own family when I began to notice interesting objects and structures that seemed to stand out in contrast to the stark arctic landscapes. I began photographing those objects, but was disappointed with the results of the automated laboratory prints. As fate would have it, my new boss was an avid photographer. He lent me his darkroom equipment and with the help of some library books I was soon developing my own film and prints.
Now, trial and error photography outside at -30C is not always fun. Luckily, my wife was a willing indoor model, and I began my first serious attempts at portrait photography with her help. This soon led to friends and other family members posing for me.
Growing up in a small town in the Canadian Rockies meant there was no shortage of spectacular scenery. Unfortunately, being surrounded by that scenery seems to have made me oblivious to it. While I enjoy the work of famous artists such as Ansel Adams, and the incredible Canadian photographer Courtney Milne, the natural world rarely attracts my attention.
I am always excited when I drive into big cities. Any large metropolis seems to have an energy surrounding it that emanates from the people and the structures. Great photographers such as Helmut Newton (1920-2004), Fabrizio Rainone, Dorothea Lange and Barbara Vaughn have captured those people and places - often in shocking and provocative images. In particular, Helmut Newton's glamour photographs and outlandish subject matter splashed across the cover of mainstream magazines such as Vogue must have inspired many to pick up a camera. I am no different.
John French (1907-1966) and Helmut Newton refer to photography as "making pictures" versus "taking" pictures.
They "created" art - they didn't "take" anything away. That is how I feel about photography.
There is nothing and then there is something.
All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.
- Richard Avedon
Those who are scandalized by a naked body—thinks the Devil—are easy prey: they are already doomed.
- José Bergamín
