Chris Dahl & Malcolm Parry

 

Rick Staehling

My father was a journalist and my mother was a poet. Somehow in spite of that background I became a photographer. But in April 1982, when the war over the Malvinas (I was born in Argentina so I insist in calling them that!) was raging, Vancouver Magazine editor Malcolm Parry told me, “Alex you are going to write about your experiences in the Argentine Navy and that coup you participated in.” A month later my portrait in sailor uniform was on the cover (taken by Parry with my equipment).

The Order of Generals 

From then on I wrote here in there but not before being given advice my writers I worked with:

John Lekich – Whatever you put in the first paragraph insert in the last one.

Les Wiseman – Unless you are Charles Dickens never begin in the beginning. Start in the middle and work both ways. If you do not know what you are writing about first consult an expert.

And art director Chris Dahl made sure I tried as hard as I could to take good photographs. 

Thanks to Parry, Lekich and Wiseman I wrote for money for many publications including a monthly garden column for Western Living and many for the Vancouver Sun. In 2006 when I started mu web page it had an ancillary blog. To date I have written 6750 of them. I was especially proud when I got a call from Rick Staehling who was editor of a travel magazine. “Alex we want you to go to Cancún. Because you write and also take photographs we save on an airplane ticket.

I recently wrote this blog about a friend in Mexico City who is a partially blind, 91 year-old photographer. I sent the blog to Malcolm Parry. His reply made me smile!

Pedro Meyer - An Active Photographer at 91 

I believe you may have meant enormousness rather than enormity. Cheers: Mac