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| George Waterhouse Hayward - the first family writer |
I have given my oldest granddaughter, who has many talents that there are three professions that do not need a college education or degree. These are photography, writing and prostitution. I then add that prostitution should never be that third option.
While I went to university and even taught in a Jesuit university in Mexico City I became a photographer and a good one by the late 70s in Vancouver. And of course I never did study photography anywhere.
It was during the Islas Malvinas war that Vancouver Magazine editor, Malcolm Parry told me (he did not ask) to write something about my own experience in the Argentine Navy. He shot my portrait (it was on the cover!) and soon I was writing for several publications including a monthly garden column (Is gardening another self taught profession?) for Western Living Magazine.
Along the way in my writing career I was given advice by two writers. John Lekich told me that whatever I placed in the first paragraph of something I wrote would necessarily mention it in the last paragraph.
Writer Les Wiseman was quite precise, “Unless you are Charles Dickens you never begin in the beginning. You start in the middle and work both ways.” He added, “If you are writing about something you know nothing about, first do research and consult an expert.”
By the late 90s and early 20th century I was being hired as both a writer and photographer particularly when the job was abroad. The magazines realized they could save on air tickets and hotels for a second person as I was both writer and photographer.
My father was a journalist in Buenos Aires, and alas he was not to know that I became a writer. But I think of him when I write and try to be pleasant and not overly critical. He was a kind man.
My mother and my aunt Dolly were both accomplished poets. I would never attempt to write a poem but I believe that thanks to them some of my sentences have good cadence.
My maternal grandmother (the only grandparent I ever knew) always reminded me that my grandfather Don Tirso de Irureta Goyena was the single member in the Philippines of the Real Academia Española which is dedicated to improving the knowledge of the Spanish language. And because of that constant reminding I do a lot of thinking in both languages, going back and forth comparing words that are shared in both languages and words that are unique.
Taking the advice of John Lekich about that first paragraph, I will mention that this photographer/writer (but not a prostitute) believes that if newspapers existed in Vancouver I could write a daily column with no problem. I must add that from that first halftone process photograph, Dec 2 1873, in a New York City newspaper of the Steinway Building, that photographs and copy from that moment became a symbiosis of copy (writing) and photographs or illustration. It helps in my writing that I can add my photographs.
