Red Zinger Reid
Thursday, July 24, 2014
I first saw Reid on Wreck Beach. She had a body to die for. It was a healthy exuberant body like few you see now. She was with a musician friend who was busy placing two tape recorders a few feet apart by the water. It seemed he wanted to record the sounds of the sea in real stereo.
I have no memory on exactly how it was that
I approached this monumento (as we say in Spanish) and enquired on the
possibility of snapping her pictures.
What you see here are my first of her. In
1977 I was still attempting to find my style and direction. I was unsure if I
wanted to be a portrait photographer or a fashion photographer. I did not have
studio lights. I took these with existing light with a Spotmatic F with I believe
a precursor of Kodak Technical Pan film. The other photos (sitting in the chair
and looking up) I used a Pentax S-3 with Kodak b+w Infrared film.
I photographed Reid many times through the
years. For a while she worked at a Video Rental place Mega Movies on 16th
and Oak which subsequently became Rogers
and then closed.
It is probably a sure thing that I was not
the only patron of the place who was so, because Reid was always a sight to
behold. And since I knew her she would talk to me with that voice. It was
heaven!
The pictures reflect the almost post-hippie
era when folks like Reid would congregate on 4th Avenue and in cafés (that did not have lattes or capuchinos)
they imbibed red zinger tea. One of them was called the Soft Rock Café.