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| Arthur Erickson - 1984 |
In geometry, a paraboloid is a quadric surface that has exactly one axis of symmetry and no center of symmetry. The term "paraboloid" is derived from parabola, which refers to a conic section that has a similar property of symmetry. Wikipedia
As portrait photographer, at least this one, I have found myself being alone with many of my subjects and experiencing a level of intimacy that is remarkable.
On good example is my relationship with architect Arthur Erickson that began in 1986 and ended a few months before he died in May, 2009.
The picture that illustrates this blog was my first photograph of him. When I contacted Erickson on the phone he told me to take Polaroids of different spots at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. This I did. On the day of the portrait session I placed the Polaroids on the ground and he picked a two.
Henceforth in my many sessions with the man he opened up to me and we became friends.
When he would come to my studio on Robson and Granville he would tell me, “Alex you have God’s light reflecting into your studio from César Pelli’s Eaton’s across the street.” He knew I would understand as architect Pelli was an Argentine like me.
When I photographed him in his small house on the West Side I asked him why he had bought the place when with the money he had he could have purchased a place with a mountain or sea view. His answer, “I wanted to build something and grow a garden where all I would see would be only what I had built or planted.”
Another time when I was taking his portrait in his garden (he was wearing flip-flops) he said, "It seems you want me to look like Frank Lloyd Wright."
But it was on the last time that I saw him in early 2009 that I have memories that moved me and I feel grateful to have known the man.
I was at a function presided by Diane Farris. I noticed that Erickson was sitting alone at a table. It seemed that nobody wanted to sit with him as by then he was suffering the effects of Alzheimer’s. I sat down at his table and told him, “Arthur it seems to me that your architecture was influenced by the Spanish/Mexican architect Felix Candela.
I can report here that we talked for an hour on the merits of hyperbolic paraboloids (hypars) and how they were made possible by the varying slope of a straight line as seen in the calculus. Of hypars my blog link below explains in detail where hypars come from.
I have written at least 3 blogs on the subject of my discussion with Erickson on hypars. But I still wanted to do it all again. It was that tonight I caught on that in my portrait sessions there is an intimacy that could be lacking when people are interviewed.
