Gail Johnson - 2002

 

Because I have spent most of my life in that last century, I feel awfully lucky at all the pleasant experiences I had. Many of them were because I was a magazine photographer in Vancouver when journalism was alive and well.

I had a particular liking to working with the arts weekly that was  the Georgia Straight. I dealt with two wonderful women, Gail Johnson and Janet Smith. Janet Smith was the arts editor, so she assigned me to photograph many people who ended up on the paper’s covers. Gail Johnson wrote about dance. I became a good dance photographer thanks to her.

I remember the first time I saw Johnson. She was standing by her desk wearing jeans and her hands were gracefully on her side. I thought she was magnificent. She looked fresh and new.

It was sometime around 2002, that for reasons that I have forgotten, I ended up in a suit and tie and Johnson in an elegant dress having drinks at the Hotel Vancouver bar. From there we went to a Ballet BC performance.

At that bar I felt like a million dollars sitting with a beautiful woman discussing our views on dance. There was nothing more than that. It was good, clean fun.

Now in this century if I were to try to repeat that I would be seen as a dirty old man. As my grandmother often told me, “Piensa mal y acertarás,” which translates to “Think the worst and you will be right.”

Gail Johnson and Janet Smith run Vancouver’s on line culture magazine called Stir. I wish them luck while thinking that it would be nice to get a call from them in relation to the arts.

I am (still) a photographer.