Monday, September 29, 2008


Some years ago Christopher Plummer was in town and my writer friend John Lekich was assigned by the Globe & Mail to interview him. I pressed Lekich to get me on the set so I could snap a portrait of the actor. Getting permission to enter a set has to go through all kinds of protocols and Lekich failed. I was crushed and it did not help when he told me, "Plummer said he would gladly pose for you the next time he comes to town." I was "collecting" portraits of celebrities. I was crushed.



Celebrities of all kinds keep coming to town but fewer great directors and film actors do so with the retreat of the Vancouver Film Festival to whatever vision it is supposed to follow. The celebrities now flock to the Toronto Film Festival, a festival of real consequence. But I am not crushed. I long ago ceased to worry about "capturing" celebrities. Of late I have become most interested in the common man/woman and I revel in taking their pictures. They represent that wonderful and exciting word, potential.



Most of my files are in alphabetical order but I have a few that are not. Witness the photographs of two beautiful women here, Colleen Neill (top, left) and Aaron Ainsley (also in colour). I photographed both at least 20 years ago. They are not filed under their surnames but in a thick file called Glamour. When I photographed them I did not deem them important enough to merit their own files. I am glad I have changed my mind. As of today I will refile them and here they are in all their glory, the beauty of the common woman, the non celebrity, celebrity.