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| Maddalena |
In my life as a photographer I have divided it into two categories. One involves
taking pictures for hire. I can be hired by a newspaper or magazine, a TV
station or a private person. It can also be a company (many in my past) which commissioned
me for annual reports. The second category, I sometimes call it my personal one.
The personal one can mean taking pictures of family and friends, of landscapes
that might interest me. Some of these can just be snapshots. There is also
within the category the art one –shooting pictures for the simple reason that I
am told I have artistic sensibilities. These art ones can be scans of the
flowers of our garden or portraits (serious ones) of my granddaughters. But
more often than not these art pictures are about my concern, obsession, and
interest in the undraped female figure with an ancillary interest in what can
make the undraped female (or dressed!) erotic.
For these
latter ones I obtain women that I know (or not know but get to know) to come to
my studio (now a home studio) to pose for me. The process can be in two
different ways much like in the two ways we may take a swim in a cold pool.
Some of us might go in little by little in what amounts to slow torture or we
might just jump in, in spite of the fear of that initial shock of the cold. Some of
these women who pose for me undrape gradually. Some simply take it all off.
The most
important ingredient of a successful photographic session is the frank
communication with my subject (beforehand, usually over coffee or tea) of my
intentions. I lay them out and if my subject is interested I explain what
lights I might use, film, cameras, etc. You never ever have someone come to
your studio without a game plan.
In a few
cases in my past, perhaps because of a trust developed with my subject after
many photo sessions in long periods of time (years) it was my subject who came
to my studio with a plan (not announced to me at all) that in many cases was a
complete surprise or so surprising that I could not read the purpose at all.
For many
years one of my favourite subjects was the Italian Maddalena. Finally she moved
to Montreal (to my chagrin) and from there to Italy to that city that has one
of the largest Gothic cathedrals. Perhaps it was when she had settled in
Montreal that she came to Vancouver for a visit. I don’t remember all the
details but I do know we had an intimate dinner at a beautiful little
restaurant in the West End called Lola’s (now long gone) and that one of the attendees
was John Armstrong. I may have enquired if Maddalena was into photographs. She
must have said yes as one afternoon she appeared and instructed me to do as I
was told.
I did not
use any lights and I took pictures of her with two Nikon FM-2 cameras loaded
with very fast b+w and colour negative film. Here they are, all the black and white ones.
But as my memory has confirmed, look below, Maddalena always
had a thing about black gloves and their variants.
