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| Rebecca Stewart - Negative projected on Kodalith and framed with silver card behind. |
“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Attributed to: Thomas Edison.
I am not sure I agree with the above. Another definition in my mind is the one of the person who has one talent and uses it. What happens to people with multiple talents?
My 26 year-old granddaughter Rebecca can and could:
1. Like my mother she can swim backstroke without a ripple.
2. She is a marvellous dancer who one day sat at our piano and told me, “We listen to a lot of Glass when we dance. Here is my interpretation.” It was good.
3. One day on a hunch I blindfolded her and brought ten different cut roses from my garden. She identified them all on scent alone.
4. Recently I discovered a lost file called Rebecca’s Digital Camera Pictures. I was rewarded in seeing that she had (and thus has) a good eye.
5. She has a facility for language. Her Spanish (she has
forgotten little of it) is flawless in pronunciation. Her French from school would come back quickly.
6. At the World Rose Convention in Vancouver in 2009, Rebecca and I gave a Powerpoint presentation to 1000 people. She had no problem talking to them.
7. She has written stuff for me. She could be a good writer.
8. She has styled and made up her sister for my portraits. I would hire her and pay her well.
But there is another talent that Rebecca has that I am going to put forward here.
For most of my magazine career in Vancouver that began around 1977 and finished not too long ago when magazines and journalism became moribund, I was known as a portrait photographer. I photographed many noted and famous people. Not too many people might know that I particularly excelled in the portraits of children.That these children have been my two daughters and granddaughters, plus portraits of my wife Rosemary, I believe is immaterial.
I learned the ropes with my daughters Alexandra and Hilary beginning in Mexico before we moved here in 1975. As soon as Hilary’s daughters were born I saw myself doing what I had always sworn not to do which is to shoot babies. The little girls grew up. Both learned that I never expected them to smile or laugh. I hardly ever did candid shots. I always posed them.
My talent for child portraiture, and then teenager portraiture started with Rebecca and from there to her sister Lauren who had and has this look that can disarm you. It is a cold gaze that is a tad discomforting until she just happens to smile.
With Rosemary, Rebecca and I went to Mexico (many times),
to Washington DC, Uruguay and Argentina. In all those places, standing behind me, Rosemary
commanded me to take pictures of Rebecca. I learned.
When the two granddaughters would come to our lovely home with a big garden in Kerrisdale I would tell them I wanted to photograph them. They often objected. It was in the garden that I discovered my real ropes.
And here is the topic I want to bring out. Both my granddaughters, and especially Rebecca, made it like once they posed, all I had to do was to press the shutter.
Is it possible that learning to take portraits is a two-way situation? I believe so.
Now I am proposing to Rebecca that I might teach her to use my digital camera, my lights and Photoshop. I think with her expertise at posing she will learn quickly and well.
So, Rebecca, the camera is on your side.
