Friday, May 21, 2010


As I realized how the march of time is pushing me inexorably to that event of no-feeling that Epicurus advised us not to worry about I find myself reflecting on some of the things I have done in my life. Because I am a photographer I have been especially looking back through my memory to the images that remain embedded, or in the case of the ones here, that have been seared into cortex of my brain.

These were the first pictures I ever took of the extremely beautiful Ona Grauer. I had met her behind the bar of Uphoria a restaurant owned some years ago by an Iranian who had been a financial advisor to the Shaw. Many of us went to the bar for two reasons. One of them happened to be the largest variety of single malt Scotches and town and the other was the snappy, almost rude Ona.



We lapped up her treatment of us with relish. I made it my mission to photograph. These are the first pictures I took of her. She came back to my studio many times and I photographed her in my garden twice. Then she got busy appearing in science fiction series being filmed in Vancouver and I lost track of her. I have found her again.



Of the many women that I have photographed, it was Ona that my wife Rosemary was the most friendly to. I have never know quite why. I remember that with another woman, whom I will call here the Baltic Surprise, Rosemary seem to not like. Every few minutes Rosemary would open the window into the garden and shout, “Alex is phone for you!”



Since at least 14 years have passed since I took these pictures, I believe I could take pictures of Ona that would be fresh all over again. Fourteen years ago she had this extremely happy personality that was almost unsettling. Perhaps with age and experience she will have become another person. I would like to take her pictures and compare. This is one of the pleasures of photography.