Alan Jacques - Photographer
Thursday, April 13, 2017
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| Alan Jacques - April 13 2017 - Kitsilano |
Some years ago when I was teaching at Focal Point on the
first day of a class a pleasant looking young man came up to me and said, “My
name is Alan Jacques and I have Parkinson’s. I have good days and bad days. On
bad days I will miss your class.”
Jacques was a very good student. His technique for
stability was to put his legs wide apart and hold a very heavy Nikon film camera with
a wide angle lens.
The years have not been kind to Jacques who has worked with
adversity. He is perhaps the best street photographer in Vancouver. He had a
show last year at the Yukiko Onley's Visual Space Gallery on Dunbar and 16th. It was terrific,
particularly his shots taken from a corner on Main and Broadway. Jacques has an
eye for knowing when to press the shutter.
As part of Vancouver’s Capture Festival Jacques has a show
and will give a couple of talks. The info is below.
Last year was a very significant transition year for
me. Despite my health challenges, I had
my first solo exhibition last April at the Visual Space Gallery in
Vancouver. As part of the week-long
exhibition, I delivered two well-received artist talks. The experience transformed me from a
photographer to an artist. I’ve long
believed that exhibiting your work to the public is an integral part of being a
complete artist.
Participating in this year’s festival was the logical
follow-up to last year’s success.
However, being the ‘yes’ person that I am, I tend to be in self-denial
about my health. In reality, I have late
stage Parkinson’s Disease and my health is not in the same state as it was last
year. I have come to realize that it is
important to myself as an artist to continue showing and speaking about my work,
but there are no guarantees.
Therefore I have been making the most of the time I have
preparing my work for this year’s festival.
I have been working on my newest project 1972: Rediscovered Photographs
of Vancouver from the early Seventies.
As well, I have been improving and completely updating my Evolution of a
Photographer artist talk.
I would like to invite you to one of the talks previewing my
latest collection either on Wednesday, April 19th or Tuesday, April 25th at the
HR MacMillan Space Center. (The
Planetarium). Also on display will be
highlights from my Paris and Vancouver collections. Please see the flyer below for more details
and sample photographs.
As you may know, I spent a number of years as a public
speaker, and while I can’t guarantee it will be my smoothest presentation, I
can guarantee it will truly be the best I can deliver.
I hope to see you there!
Alan
Today Thursday April 13, 2017 I snapped this picture of
Jacques with my Fuji X-E1 and a Nikon 50mm f-1.4 lens (with adapter) shot wide
open. I like the shot and so did Jacques and his friend David. In spite of the
look of the photograph, Jacques is not an angry man. He is a pleasant low-key
kind of guy. Below a Fuji Instant Colour Film scanned peel.
