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| Caitlin Legault |
With not much to do except for nature to take its course with my body and soul, I do a lot of thinking.
Today I was thinking of all those women (including wife, daughters, and granddaughters) I have photographed since I started taking portraits around1961. I am grateful that I was never a plumber. How could I have possibly approached that fabulous blonde at the Railway Club, “Hi, I am a plumber, I would like to photograph your undraped.” The woman said yes because I noted that I was a photographer.
In Spanish we have the word retratar which is a transitive verb “to take a portrait”. It comes from the Latin and it means to take out or remove.
It is interesting to me that a lovely synonym for cara (face in Spanish) is rostro. My Spanish Language on Line dictionary RAE (Real Academia Española) tells me that the word comes from Latin for snout!
I look through my negative and photographs of all these women as they mostly stare out to me through my camera lens. I get a glimpse of something that I equate to life/soul/spirit.
One of the finest faces I ever photographed was a woman called Caitlin Legault.
I took many photographs of her numbering in the hundreds. These two are some of my favourites of her.
And, yes, I am grateful that I never decided to become a plumber.
