All photographs of Olena - 4 July 2022

In this 21st century I am constantly asked, “Alex are you still…” It infuriates me as nobody asks an older lawyer on the street if they are still lawyering.

So without using that awful word I can state that I have the first photograph I ever took back in 1958 and that in this century I share my photography with film cameras and a digital Fuji X-E3, a Galaxy5 phone and an iPhone3G without a SIM card.

In that past century my magazine photography became complicated because Vancouver Magazine editor Mac Parry, and two of his art directors Rick Staehling and Chris Dahl pushed me to innovate.They did not allow me to rest on my laurels. In fact one day Parry threw one of my wide angle lenses at me telling me, "You are making the motions. Go back and do something good."

Complicated shoots then involved manhandling big props, using elaborate lighting like Hollywood lighting, renting smoke machines and borrowing a fire hydrant from the city to photograph D.O.A. in Yaletown.

In this century I continually (not still!) do all that but I must admit that while digital cameras make my photography seem simpler, it can get complicated (only in my mind) when I use slow shutters or move the camera while shooting.

There is one shoot I did of my good friend Olena where my Portland bassist friend Curtis Daily projected on Olena, using my Epson digital projector, digital photographs I had taken of her before. It seemed too easy and yet basing it on the choice of how Daily moved the projector on Olena I can declare that the photographs are fabulous. I know that my two art directors would have approved and wowed at looking at them. But in this century my peers, so used to special effects, look at them and make no comments or even ask me what the process is that I use. 

I find that my innovation is done in isolation. In Vancouver we have a plurality of available film and of late I have enjoyed using Rollei Infrared Film in both 35mm and in the 120 format. Even then I know of no peers that use that film or are excited at the possibilities.

Why is this?