Alex Waterhouse-Hayward: Two At A Time

Left, Wreck Beach, right Les Wiseman & Mary Jo Kopechne

Film has never been cheap. In my early career in the late 70s as a magazine photographer I tried to squeeze as many assignments into a roll of film as possible. Many people in those days went a step further. They might go for a winter vacation in Hawaii and perhaps take 20 pictures on a 36 exposure roll. Instead of having the roll processed they might wait for another picture taking situation to finish the roll. Or, and this happened a lot, they might forget all about it. They might take out their camera months later and open the back to put film in and… We know how that story ends.

Alex W-H & Maurice Depas

I suspect that the pictures you see hear must be from sometime around 1977. I was still using a strange but very sharp film (even though many of these here are not!) called Kodak Special Order 115. It was later was renamed Technical Pan. It was the sharpest film ever made. Its extended red sensitivity rendered skin to look almost pristine.

Left John Armstrong (aka Buck Cherry) & Alex W-H

I found the negatives and matching contact sheet filed as family 1977. Because of the snapshot of my eldest daughter Ale having her hair done by Nancy Gillespie (the hairdresser of a whole Vancouver generation of punk musicians), and the snap in my Fiat, I had the negs filed with family. But there are others that seem to have been taken in three separate times at three separate punk concerts which I find interesting.

Left, unknown, right Bev Davies

I would like to clear the air and mention that the picture of this photographer posing with musician Maurice Depas has me smoking a cheroot. It is not what you might think it is.