Brian Moore - 1985

Jacket Design - Nancy Etheredge (one of my fave covers ever)

Brian Moore - 25 August 1921 – 11 January 1999), was a novelist and screenwriter from Northern Ireland who emigrated to Canada and later lived in the United States. He was acclaimed for the descriptions in his novels of life in Northern Ireland during and after the Second World War, in particular his explorations of the inter-communal divisions of The Troubles, and has been described as "one of the few genuine masters of the contemporary novel. He was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1975 and the inaugural Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1987, and he was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times (in 1976, 1987 and 1990). Moore also wrote screenplays and several of his books were made into films. Wikipedia

September the 30th was the Canadian National Day for Truth and Conciliation. There was a lot of hoopla but I had a special memory. Sometime in 1985 I photographed author Brian Moore. To prepare for my shoot I read his novel The Black Robe which was all about a Jesuit priest having contact with Algonquin’s in 17 Century New France. It is an amazing novel. Such was my impression that I decided to photograph Moore at the Holy Rosary Cathedral and it was my intention of making the photograph Gothic. Don Stanley was the Associate Editor of Vancouver Magazine who had assigned me to photograph Moore. I asked him to be in a doorway at the church. Since I used a flash on Moore I equipped Stanley with a little flash he had in his hand that had a trigger that would respond to my flash.

In those days, magazine art directors were pushy and wanted (always) something different. Thanks to them, in this case Rick Staehling, I shot one of my favourite author portraits that is not my usual tight close-up.