One of the mysteries of my photographic life is such because from the very beginning that I put film in a camera all I wanted to do with it was to take portraits.

I marvel that two eyes, one nose, one mouth, a couple of ears, a forehead, two eyebrows, and a chin can create an infinity of faces.  It may depend on the shape of the face, the head, the length of hair, the length of the neck but ultimately it seems that there are finite limits that clash with a variety that indeed is infinite.

As an example here is Madeleine Morris. I first saw her singing on a stage in Vancouver at least 25 years ago. The first feature on her face that I noticed was a luxurious mouth in bright red lipstick. Because I am a photographer and not a lawyer or plumber I was finally able to persuade her to pose for me. This she did many times. Every time I was charmed by the face of a chameleon. She was short but made up for it with a passion for laughing (and smoking).

I could fill this blog with numerous examples of the above but I have chosen just a few.

The first image is one of those accidents after the fact. In my photographic darkroom (alas it flooded and was no more a year ago and then we moved to a duplex without one) the procedure before committing expensive photographic paper to the developing tray was the practice of the test strip. I would place a small portion of photographic paper (I had a box with the label Test Strips). Once I had a satisfactory one I took out the sheets of paper. This test trip somehow survived being thrown into my waste basket (it was lined with a garbage bag as test strips, and bad prints were wet with fixer). 

Through the years it has deteriorated just fine.