Cliché

    1. a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.

    "the old cliché “one man's meat is another man's poison.”"

Even though I am an obsolete, retired, redundant & inconsequential photographer there is something that remains inside if one (me) has been a teacher. My grandmother and mother were teachers. My Rosemary was a teacher. And now our eldest daughter Alexandra has been teaching for many years in Lillooet, BC.

My friend, obstreperous, Ian Bateson for years when I would show him a photograph I was proud of would say, “It’s been done before.”  He would say the same about just any rock band we would see at the Commodore Ballroom in the 80s.

He left me speechless for many, many years until one day I saw the light. I remember that I shouted at him, “But I have not done it yet!”

Working at Vancouver Magazine, art director Chris Dahl pushed me to get out of whatever style I had at the moment. In one occasion he told me to imitated Vanity Fair covers done by Irving Penn. I sort of objected but I soon learned that the key to an identifiable personal style (Penn had it in spades as did Avedon and Newton) was to study photographers I admired until, little by little the style that emerged was my own.

Part of this voyage of discovery of the Holy Grail of Photography which is the personal style is to try to shoot clichés. Clichés work because they are clichés.

So when I faced Lisa Prentiss in her apartment and I noticed the reflections from the venetian blinds I knew I had to shoot as many as I could. This I did.

And for many years after including in this shot I took of Olena with my iPhone3g the use of gobos with a focusing spotlight meant I didn’t need Venetian blinds and for the light to be just right.