In my files I have found 9 exposures of a woman posing with a book, a feather pen and a raven. I cannot remember her name. But I do recall that I drove to the Raven Pub in North Van in the early 80s to borrow a stuffed raven they had there. 

Since I would like to place the photograph in a blog I decided to connect the poet to another poet, Jorge Luís Borges in a beautiful description by Roberto Bolaño who wrote of his visit to Borges’s tomb in Geneva. At the cemetery of Plainpalais , Bolaño sits downs on a bench in front of the tomb and writes (my translation):

I sit on a bench in front of the tomb and a raven says something with a hoarse sound, not far from me. A raven! It is as if I were not in Geneva but within a Poe poem.

Below is the full account in Spanish

En el libro de Roberto Bolaño, "Entre paréntesis", se puede leer en su página 144 el siguiente texto (de precioso título, todo hay que decirlo) a propósito de su venerado Jorge Luis Borges:

"BORGES Y LOS CUERVOS

Estoy en Ginebra y busco el cementerio en donde está enterrado Borges. La mañana es fría y otoñal, aunque por el este se vislumbran unos cuantos rayos de sol que hacen sonreír a los ginebrinos, gente obstinada y de gran tradición democrática. El Plainpalais, el cementerio en donde está Borges, es el cementerio ideal: dan ganas de venir aquí cada tarde a leer un libro, sentado delante de la tumba de algún consejero de Estado. Más que un cementerio esto parece un parque, un parque extremadamente cuidado hasta en sus más pequeños detalles. Cuando le pregunto al sepulturero por la tumba de Borges, mira el suelo, mueve la cabeza y me indica el lugar con palabras precisas. No hay forma de perderse. Por sus palabras es fácil deducir que el tránsito de visitantes es continuo. Pero esta mañana el cementerio está literalmente vacío. Y cuando por fin llego a la tumba de Borges no hay nadie en los alrededores. Pienso en Calderón, pienso en los románticos ingleses y alemanes, pienso en lo extraña que es la vida, o mejor dicho: no pienso absolutamente nada. Sólo miro la tumba, la piedra grabada en donde está escrito el nombre de Jorge Luis Borges, el año de su nacimiento, el año de su muerte y un verso en lengua germánica. Y luego me siento en un banco que está enfrente de la tumba y un cuervo dice algo, con un sonido ronco, a pocos pasos de mí. ¡Un cuervo! Como si en lugar de estar en Ginebra estuviéramos en un poema de Poe. Sólo entonces me doy cabal cuenta de que el cementerio está lleno de cuervos, enormes cuervos negros que se suben a las lápidas o a las ramas de los viejos árboles o que corren por el cuidado césped del cementerio de Plainpalais. Y entonces siento ganas de caminar, de recorrer más tumbas, tal vez con suerte pueda encontrar la de Calvino, y eso hago, cada vez más inquieto, mientras los cuervos me siguen sin traspasar los límites estrictos del cementerio, aunque supongo que alguno de vez en cuando sale volando de allí y se va a posar en las orillas del Ródano o en las orillas del lago, para contemplar a los cisnes y los patos, con algo de desdén, claro."

Left, Bronwen, right Nahui Olin by Edward Weston

In my past as a photography teacher I have told my students that the Holy Grail of the medium is to develop a personal style. One of the ways to achieve that is to imitate favourite photographers until one finds a fit that is similar but unique to one’s own. Slowly once this happens the personal style emerges.

In this blog I have examples on how Picasso imitated famous paintings but made them in his inimitable style.

Sometimes one does not need to imitate a photograph exactly. If it is done in the spirit of that original image the secondary version can be unique, too.

In my search for that personal style I have found out that a photograph that looked easy to copy was not so. A few years ago I inherited a Leica IIIF. This was the camera that Cartier-Bresson used for many years. The camera is a dog. It is hard to load and hard to frame. I developed a renewed respect for the man after failing many times with the Leica. The picture below I took with the Leica a few years ago.

A couple of months ago while in Mérida with my wife Rosemary I spotted the book seen here about an intriguing painter and model called Nahui Olin. I was instantly hit by a nostalgia for the Mexico I live in the 50s and early 70s.

In vain I looked for a woman in Vancouver that would pose for me. Finally my friend Bronwen indicated she was going to.

My attempt of duplicating Edward Weston’s photograph of Nahui Olin was not to be. Perhaps I was not high enough to shoot down or my little studio is just too small. But what emerged were photographs that pleased me and even excited me. They are variants of Weston’s but they are done in my style.

If I can lure Bronwen to return soon perhaps I will not be so rough around the edges and take some better photographs.

Bronwen has posed for me now for some years. My file of  her is thick (I showed it to her and she was amazed). She was quick to remind me when I clamped my iPhone3G to the tripod that I had taken a whole series of her with it when the phone was new and cutting edge.

I believe that the photographs here are a true colaboración ( I like the sound of the word in Spanish) between us that happens because communication (of the verbal kind) is minimal. We know how to work together. 

Because this is the 21st century I wonder if the word muse is no longer appropriate. It seems to define inspiration as being of the female kind. Is there some word that I could use that would not be gender spicific? Whatever word that may be, Bronwen inspires me to excellence.

My friend graphic designer Graham Walker and I were prepared to attend a concert featuring a most interesting and difficult work by Steve Reich at the Orpheum Annex on Seymour today. Alas! It was sold out. At the queue before we turned away, we chatted with a tall freckled-faced Scotsman in town with his theater troupe that is performing at Granville Island beginning tomorrow for the Children’s Festival.

On Sunday, May 27th, from 7 p.m - 10 p.m., at the Orpheum Annex Theatre, the Vancouver public will have a chance to enjoy a special production that features music by the most famous living Jewish-American composer Steve Reich, his celebrated composition TEHILLIM,  and also see for the first time in Vancouver, the academic exhibition traveling especially for this occasion from the Bulgarian Embassy in Ottawa - "The Power of Civic Society - Fate of the Jews in Bulgaria during 1940-1944".

This marks the 75th anniversary of an important historical event- the salvation of the Bulgarian Jews during WWII. Twenty four big tableaux tell the story of what happened!

On the program: Srul Irving Glick, Paul Ben-Haim, Ernst Bloch, Maurice Ravel, Steve Reich.

Conductor: Les Dala

Definitely disappointed the three of us walked down Seymour to Smythe. It was there that we noticed a police woman in a big black van stop a young woman (with N in her rear bumper) driving the wrong way on Smythe. It was then that a handsome slim man, all in black, walked toward us. It was Leslie Dala tonight's Musical Director of the evening’s performance at the Orpheum Annex. I introduced him to Walker and our new friend Rory Haye.

Dala asked us if we could read music. Haye and Walker nodded positively. Dala took out the music and started conducting what he called some of the difficult parts of Tehillim. At one point he said something like, “If you get distracted with this you can get fu….”

While we were disappointed at missing the concert we were most impressed with our personal pre-concert talk.

On why Rory Haye is here in Vancouver:

The work is called Poggle and that is a most intriguing name.