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| Anna Wyman circa late 70s |
It has taken 77 years for my concept of space and time to
change, even after having read here and there about Einsteinian time and space.
It all suddenly changed for me some twelve years ago when Vancouver
contemporary dancers Emily Molnar and Crystal Pite discussed space, time and
movement in my studio.
The shortest definition of relativistic movement I have ever
heard came from Molnar (35) who said, “Movement
is the observer.” This means that from a position of rest we the observers
can discern the movement of a dancer on stage. Of time Pite (37) said, “The ephemeral of dance exists only in the
present movement. We are left with traces of movements that are gone as they
are being created. As we carve space with our bodies they leave a ghost, the
trail which affects our future moves and informs the observer of our past
moves.”
I then understood that those past moves are much like the
contrails that high-flying jets leave in the sky.
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| Anna & Trevor Wyman |
For many years I have photographed dancers in portraits and
dancing. I have frozen their movement with a fast shutter a few times but I
have mostly opted for the blurring swirls that show movement more, than the peak
(when movement is zero) in a studio.
On Saturday I read the obituary for Anna Wyman in the
Vancouver Sun. This was an unusual one as it was written by her former husband,
Max Wyman who was (is) a paragon of stable pragmatism in this century that
seems to lack it. He is, thankfully alive but my writer friends Sean Rossiter and
Mark Budgen are not. I miss them as I miss the very much alive David Baines and
Maurice Bridge.
In the last few days I have spoken on the phone with architect
Alan James, Georgia Straight Editor
Charlie Smith and one of the few
Vancouver Sun writesr still writing,
John Mackie. These folks converse without ranting and do so with as much
objectivity as possible.
All the above is just ancillary to how much I enjoyed (but
in sadness, too) Max Wyman’s obituary.
I went to my file looking for Wyman, Anna. All I could find
was Wyman, Max. Then I remembered that I have a separate file called Dance. And
that is where I found Wyman, Anna.
Not too long ago I read that space in magazines and
newspapers is limited but on the net it is infinite. In the file I found four
sets of negatives. It seems I photographed Anna Wyman twice. In the late 70s
(when I took these photographs) I did not have the habit of dating the envelope
containing the negatives and contact sheets.
I do know that the magazine that sent me twice to take the
pictures was Vancouver Magazine. In those early days I remember a gentleman
with long, leonine hair that frequented the magazine. That is when I first met
Max Wyman. As to who would have written the article for which my photograph was
used (of the early session only one was used). Of the second session which I
took with a medium format camera I exposed only 9 frames (one roll of 120
film).
When I looked that the contact sheets (3) of that early
session I suddenly realized that these were my first ever dance photographs. In
a couple of photographs you will see Anna Wyman and Max Wyman’s son Trevor.
I believe that John Mackie may have called Max Wyman to ask
him to write the obituary. If he did this was a brilliant idea. Both Mackie and
I agree on the sad fact that Vancouver has a poor memory for its past. I have
no idea how many people are subscribed to the Vancouver Sun (we are) so I
wonder how many people might know of the death of the dance pioneer that Anna
Wyman was?
My photographs while tactile (I touched the negatives to
scan them) somehow felt like the above comments on space and time by Molnar and
Pite. They were fleeting. I remember
having photographed mother and son. But that was it. I am a tad proud of the
fact that my first photos of dance (Kodak Tri-X) are not all that bad. They
prove to me that my memory, not really forgotten, but newly remembered in
quantity did happen.
I feel lucky for that.
