In 1986 Rosemary, our two daughters and I moved to a big house (corner garden) in Kerrisdale. It had lots of shade. I discovered by book research (pre Google) that hostas were shade tolerant (no plant is shade loving) perennials. In 1992 I decided to combine the variety of hostas (over 4000 cultivars) with my love of the undraped female form.

It just so happened that a show had fallen through at the then happening photo gallery, The Exposure Gallery, on Beatty Street. Brian Lynch, the curator, called me up and asked me if I could put up a show within the week.

Hosta 'Yellow River' October 28, 2017

And so as explained here, and here,  I combined the magnificent Lisa Montonen with my hosta leaves and used one softbox in my studio on Robson and Granville.

Today I scanned some hosta leaves to show that it’s not only falling leaves from trees in the fall that have interesting colours. These leaves, 2017 and my hosta photographs with Lisa Montonen shockingly tell me that a quarter of a century has passed.

Because in 1992 I was obsessed with the undraped female form the majority of the photographs show bits and parts that I cannot place here but served me well at the Exposure Gallery.

This one of Montonen sprawled on a sofa (I borrowed it from artist Rodney Graham whose studio was across mine) worked out nicely. I did something which is usually verboten. To place a black cloth (in this case black satin) under Montonen to hide the sofa (I believe it was orange) usually works in the opposite direction as a reflector. Had she not had a perfect body the cloth would have added nasty shadows.

To light her with the softbox I suspended it from a boom so that my camera would not “see” the light stand.

October 28 2017