April

Of my primera vez I wrote it in link above. It was not until Rosemary, our two daughters and I moved to Vancouver that my attitude progressed. But it was stifled by the fact that I was not known as a photographer so I washed cars for Tilden-Rent-A-Car for two years until I began to get small photo jobs. Because I had lots of idle time by the late 70s I was going to Vancouver’s nudist Wreck Beach. Rosemary would tell me that I was wasting my time and that I should find better activities to while away the hours.

I stuck to my guns and started taking photographs of women using the then latest Kodak b+w films like SO-115 and SO-410. I shot a lot with Kodak B+w Infrared Film that added a lovely luminosity to skin.

It was only years later that I learned that my nude photographs helped me shoot portraits and full length shots for magazine assignments. I could tell how a body looked naturally with clothing on. That and my dance photography helped lots.

In the late 90s I had many one man shows featuring my nudes plus I participated in group shows at that wonderful photography gallery called The Exposure Gallery which was on Beatty Street.

Now, alas(!) in this 21^st century, and particularly in Vancouver, we have onerous (my opinion) on showing anybody photos of nude persons.

It was around 1978 when I told Rosemary that in order to compete in the free-lance photography business I needed a good studio lighting system. I had found a photographer in Victoria who was selling his for $3200. At that time I was working for a gay publication called Bi-Line. It consisted mostly of photographs of nude men. I was their photographer. I went to our local Burnaby Bank of Montreal to borrow money. I faced an elderly dour Scottish woman who asked me, “What is your collateral?” I plunked a pile of Bi-Lines on her desk. After perusing them she said, “You are a good photographer. How much do you need?” I bought the lights.

Yesterday as I am increasingly putting an order to my photo files I took out the folder called Wreck Beach. I was able to discern the first two nudes I ever took there. In the scan you will notice the frame numbers. It was in that first role where my subject who was called April posed for a photograph that I call my first great nude photograph. Because I did not brush off the black sand from her feet I see in this photograph what I have always tried to avoid. I hate absolute perfection. The sand adds an edge.

And thanks to Rosemary and April the rest is history. Through the years I would get phone calls from unknown women who would ask me to take their photographs. I would direct them to portrait photographers around town. They would then add, “I want different photographs.”  That word was code for nude.

One woman who called me was up-front. I am a fitness teacher at a YWCA and I want my body recorded before age collapses it. Best of all she paid me well.

The phone calls are not so frequent as before but they keep coming. I calculate that I have around 700 women files involving either little clothing or none at all. Some of the women would pose intermittently for me for years. Some of the individual files may have 600 negatives. I have lots.

I almost despair at noting their beauty but knowing that they will never see the light of day again with the now pervasive “community standards”.

It’s such a shame. But I would like to finish here with a funny note. Some years ago Rosemary and I were at a Safeway. I noticed a woman that was nearby. It was December, near Christmas. I said, “Rosemary it’s April in December, don’t you think?” I kept repeating it. The woman came up to me and said, “So my name is April. So what?”

I never saw her again.