Ian Davidson

 

Because I am a Platonist, a fan and believer of Plato’s philosophy, I am frequently thinking about perfection and how in our human world what we see is only a shadow of the real essence that was in Plato’s perfect world of ideas.

When I look at some of my family portraits, I think that they are perfect in that I was able to show (hate the word capture) something of my subject’s inner soul.

Because I am a portrait photographer who was at it since 1959 until now (and I am keeping on) I believe I may have and inside knowledge of what makes a perfect portrait.

I noticed this portrait of architect Ian Davidson, now dead, posing with his Yves Klein Blue sculpture. I looked at it for a while and I believe everything in it is perfect in the sense that you cannot take anything out without diminishing (is it possible to diminish perfection?) its perfection.

I was feeling a real high. “Alex you were really good!” Then I was hit by  some problems. The image you see here is from a past blog, this one, so its size is not all that good. I went into my files and I could not find Davidson, Ian. Finally I went to my “As” and his pictures were in a section called Architects.

I was happy until I looked into the folder and found I took 40 6x7 cm Ektachromes with different variations of this one. There was a second one that was almost exact except for the little triangle of light on one side of his wrist.

My guess is that Vancouver Magazine art director Rick Staehling looked at all 40 pictures and picked the one would have picked too.

Because this city’s art galleries, including the VAG ignore my existence I will just sigh and imagine this image enlarged huge on a wall. I might just happen when I meet up with my forthcoming oblivion.

Perfection has to wait.