In that long-gone 20th century in which I was raised and lived most of my existence, there were fewer famous people, fewer critically-acclaimed people and fewer award-winning people. Foreign (outside the United States) films did not exist or were not noticed and we only had the Oscars. There were no glimpses of cleavage-on-a-red-carpet yet. That was to come.

When rock music burst the movement was too new to have a rock’n roll hall of fame.

Thanks to Andy Warhol (a fixture of that 20^th) we are now all famous and we are all award-winning in spite of taking medicated (a meaningless word coined in that 20^th) remedies. If we are not yet critically-acclaimed we are up&coming thanks to that pill.

I remember that in that 20^th I was nominated for that then prestigious prize called a Webster Award. I did not win so I can proudly say I am not an award-winning photographer. As for being critically-critically, in this 21^st century you have to be first remembered. I am not.

Only once in my life did I feel noticed (probably just rampant paranoia). My portrait as an Argentine conscript sailor (taken by a really critically-acclaimed renaissance man – Malcolm Parry) appeared on the cover of Vancouver Magazine. I felt it necessary to navigate my then Burnaby digs wearing sunglasses.

But it spite of all those negative vibes I can safely say that I feel very lucky to have lived the life I have. It happened when journalism was important and there was money to keep it lively and moving forward (a hackneyed term coined and important, with politicians in this 21^st).

Because journalism was influential some soon-to-be award-winning persons, who were yet to be critically-acclaimed, faced my camera for publications that were critically-acclaimed and award-winning.

One such person was Jann Arden. I am sure that few south of the 49^th parallel knew who she was at the time, November 1994.

Today I have found out that she is going to be inducted to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

In my increasing age my memory cannot be critically retrieved with ease. I do remember that she was sweet and a real pleasure to photograph.

Her interview was held by the Globe and Mail’s Christopher Dafoe who was so good at what he did that he could have made Maria Callas sing on a day when she had lost her voice. Arden was,thus, ready to face my big-on-steroids Mamiya RB-67. Below is the original blog from December 23, 2017: