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| Rosemary - Burnaby - 1975 - Polaroid |
In the Barnes not quite a novel Departure(s) there is a lot of Marcel Proust’s concept involving a rushing memory when a biscuit, a Madeline, was dropped into tea – “Proust and madeleine: Together in the thalamus. When that happened it created an involuntary autobiographical memory – IAM. Worse (or is it better?) is HSAM – highly superior autobiographical memory.
I am bombarded by the latter phenomenon. An example is my memory of my friend, now gone Sean Rossiter who asked me, “Was she wearing that sensational red dress?” when I told him I had gone to photograph Carole Taylor.
In this 21st century I abhor the constant use of some words. Two of them are iconic and stunning.
When I first started as a magazine photographer here in Vancouver in the late 70s I had no idea what art directors wanted of me. When I got to know them better I had a trick. I would print the contact sheet or sheets and show them to the art director, in the beginning it was Rick Staehling at Vancouver Magazine. He would pick the image. I would then drive home having in my car, an already printed 8x10. I would return the next day. I did not want him to know that I could do this.
But it was in the beginning when we arrived to Vancouver in 1975 that I shot a Polaroid of Rosemary in our Burnaby home. I quickly put it in a box and forgot it. It was only perhaps 3 or 4 years ago that I found it and I was amazed at my visual stupidity. It is framed and in my guest bathroom, a place frequent as I am an old man.
The photograph is sensational. I will not say it is iconic.
Looking at the photograph now I can see that her elegant hands are not quite right. It was in the early 80s that Rosemary told me the importance of hands in a portrait. When I began to photograph ballet and modern dance I connected with the right way of positioning hands. I can see our Mexican made wedding ring that has a blue enamelled band in the middle. I wear mine proudly.
My Rosemary was a sensational woman.
