I Remember the Shapes and Sizes of the Water Taps
Most of my family and friends either object or ignore my constant mentioning that because I am 83 I am statistically not going to be around much longer. Before my Rosemary died, I would tell her that I was WTD (waiting to die) but then softened it to PTD (preparing to die).
There is a pleasant side to PTD in that I am contacting people so as to tie up loose ends. I want to make sure I apologize if I offended any of them.
An even more pleasant activity is that in the last few weeks I have been sending from all my files all those pictures I took of all those lovely women beginning in Vancouver in 1977. I need first to have their email address so I can use the excellent WeTransfer method of sending many high res files.
I have written here before how painting artists go to live figure classes. They want to know exactly how the human figure moves. I did the same with my photography, particularly of women. This has served me well in taking portraits (a few fashion spreads) of both women and men. I never make my subjects sit, stand or walk in anything but the way they do it.
One of those women, who patiently kept silent at all my amateur photography, was an ecdysiast who went by the name of Alexandria. Who but Alexandria whom I photographed in my tub with a little sail boat, etc. could have launched:
1. A show at a Vancouver gallery of my portraits of about 14 women in tubs.
2. Associated in a blog of her in a tub with one of my mother’s favourite books, JarThe Bell by Sylvia Plath. Particularly I smile at the quote on Plaths bathtub faucets.
With Alexandria, perhaps because of her elegance, my photographs were never cheesy and the ones on her bed in low light were not exactly boudoir. One of those clichés of using venetian blinds on her body I think turned out quite nicely.
I must thank her here (I already sent her all her photographs) for her patience and for inspiration that in the end served me well for all my magazine work.
These were all taken with Ektachrome 400 pushed to 800
