This 21st century is one where I believe the concept of taking striking photographs and portraits is all but forgotten. So has the concept of paying for them.

A week ago I received a request from a woman who wrote “Dear Alexy’ telling me that her organization was working on a documentary on architect Arthur Erickson and they wanted to use one of them. It just so happens that I may have the largest collection of photographs of Erickson.

No mention was made about payment. I want to note here that if the photographs in question have to be in high resolution (this was in the request) it costs money to have a negative, print or slide scanned. I happen to have a very good one.

I answered that I expected to be paid and that I would donate the funds to the Vancouver SPCA.

I never heard from her again.

Going back to that scanner (I have an excellent flatbed Epson Perfection V700 Photo) on these languid summer days, while I live in isolation with my brother and sister cats and not being able to handle the loss of my wife (she died on December 9, 2020), I like to scan my plants and fidget with what I call negative sandwiches. These negative sandwiches (two negatives scanned at the same time) work really well when they are from a same session.

Years ago I had a friend Nina Gouveia (now living in Gaucín, Spain) who introduced me to her friend, a yet unknown singer) Bif Naked.

Because of  I will place this blog into social media I will make sure not to put Bif’s complete name on the heading as there is that terrible “Community Standards” that is run by a stupid algorithm.

I photographed her in my studio, in Nina’s house and at the then ill-repute Marble Arch Hotel. Before I took the photographs I invited Bif to the bar. My friend, the owner, Tony Ricci, sat with us and was so struck with her looks that he never noticed all her tattoos when I mentioned them to him later.

I have many wonderful pictures of Bif but there is another connection that I have with her. Both she and my Rosemary had breast cancer and went to the same doctor. Bif was lucky but my Rosemary was not.

Rosa 'Sexy Rexy' & Hosta 'Rainbow's End' 22 August 2024

 

“Reality is partial to symmetry and slight anachronisms” Jorge Luís Borges

The Beauty of Asymmetry

For years many of the people whom I have known, who have either lived in Mexico, or travelled there, have told me how amazing it is to see in markets how fruits are displayed in perfect symmetry.

I believe that symmetry is an innate way of looking in all of us. But as soon as we get a bit older, look around, travel, we begin to see the wonders of asymmetry.

I will never forget (does anybody else remember) how the Rambler American was a car in which the passenger door was larger than the driver’s door. It may have been the first asymmetrical car.

Much was written in the last century how some famous female models were particularly notable because their faces were asymmetrical. Don’t we all have asymmetrical faces?  Is this why we notice something is wrong when we flip a portrait?

I will never forget (does anybody else remember) how the Rambler American was a car in which the passenger door was larger than the driver’s door. It may have been the first asymmetrical car.

In this century thanks to the smart phone, selfies and portraits with telephones usually show both sides of the face equally lit. It would seem that the wonder of Rembrandt lighting has been forgotten.

For me the absolute proof that life is not symmetrical is the placement of our heart in our chest.

Hosta 'Paradigm' - Right Rosa 'Buttercup' and Rosa 'Bathsheba'

 

One of the best dictionaries in the world is the one from the Real Academia Española. My grandfather Don Tirso de Irureta Goyena was the only member of this lofty organization from the Philippines. He fought tirelessly to prevent English from taking over Spanish there. He failed.

My grandmother, who really was the one who educated me and brought me up as my mother was a busy teacher of mathematics, physics and chemistry, taught me well about this language which is one of the two that I speak and write.

What is notable of the RAE (the abbreviation for Real Academia Española) dictionary is that all I have to do with Google is put the word with a comma and then RAE. That instantly gives me the many variations of the definition. Best of all it shows the origin of the word.

Today it was Amarillo (yellow), RAE. This is what I found:

amarillo, lla.

(Del b. lat. amarĕllus, de amārus, amargo).

It seems then the the color yellow in Spanish is from the Latin for bitter, amargo in Spanish.

The above is but an excuse to put here today’s plant scan from my garden.

Elizabeth Futral & Christopher Gaze

Evelyn Hart

Without deprecating other professions I feel lucky that for most of my life I have been a portrait photographer. In my philosophic beliefs I follow Platonism. I believe that when I have eye contact with my subjects through my camera (always at eye level) I get a glimpse into their soul. This soul is unique to every individual. It is perfect in its uniqueness.

I am going to cite three persons I photographed who may not have given me a look into their soul because they were extremely good actors.

American coloratura soprano Elizabeth Futral was playing Lucía de Lammermoor. For me she gave me Lammermoor’s insane look.

Christopher Gaze was in the role of Richard III when he clutched his sword and stared at me.

When I had the luck to watch Evelyn Hart dance In Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet there is a scene where she slowly walks to take the special potion that will make her look dead. She gets to it and then has doubts. She slowly goes back on her toes, ever so gently that I almost cried.

It is for this reason that I am glad I never became a plumber.