September 1996

 In that past century in 1996 my friend Ian McGuffie and I had a third photographer friend we hanged out with. It was only when she was about to leave for Toronto that I noticed that Patrice Bilawka was a beautiful woman. In that century you could approach a woman you did not know with the line, “Hi, I am a photographer. I would like to photograph you.” In that century my record was close to 100%.

In the case of Bilawka I photographed her twice. She wanted to show all and this I did. I will put here some of the photographs that would pass with censorship chaps. 

It is difficult to believe that a 35 mm camera (and in my case here a medium format one) with film (Ilford FP-4Plus) would take me to such wonderful moments. While  they are memories they are also had copy b+w negatives. It happened.

This sort of photography disappeared with black phones that you could plunk  down hard when you became angry.

It was a better world. And Bilawka is dealing with these present problems in Europe. She is a psychologist.

The photograph of Bilawka being made up is one of my all-time favourites. I was waiting in another room. My Mamiya RB-67 was on a tripod. I quickly slipped in a 250mm telephoto and knowing the approximate correct exposure took this and others, too.