I fell for my Rosemary on 15 December 1967 when I saw her on the street walking away from me. I say long, straight, blond hair, a dark blue mini dress and legs that were as lovely as my mothers. I was not to know then that soon after I began taking portraits of her and that is how I came to be a portrait photographer.

When we arrived to Vancouver from Mexico City in 1975 I thought that I could immediately work as a portrait photographer. That was not to be and I ended up washing cars at Tilden on Alberni Street for two years. I went to London Drugs to the photography counter and told a man there that I was a portraitist. His answer was brutal, “Sir, I graduated from McGill with a BFA and I don’t call myself a portraitist.

It was working for Vancouver Magazine in the late 70s that my skill in taking portraits was finally appreciated.

In my files now I have thousands of portraits (photographs, negatives, slides and digital files of the people of Vancouver and people who came to Vancouver.

Sometime in the late 70s I was called by a woman who said, “I am an instructor at the YWCA and I want you to photograph me before gravity takes its toll.” And that is how I began to photograph hundreds of women is various stages of undress. Most had lovely faces so I always began with portraits before they removed their clothing.

My experience is this kind of photography is vast and I did notice quickly that the imagination of women on being photographed was superior to mine. They taught me to see.

It was my Rosemary who told me the importance of hands so I incorporated them in my portraits.

Another method I used was to load more than one camera with various kinds of film. They were Kodak B+W Infrared Film, several versions of early Special Order 410 that ultimately became Kodak Technical Pan which was extremely sharp and fine-grained but with its extra sensitivity made skin glow.

Some of these photographs have appeared in my blogs. Many of my subjects have told me to remove their names from them.  

I can report that in my extensive files I have many women listed as politicians, ballet or modern dancers, and actresses.  Female writes are under a file called Writers. But I have a separate  four drawer metal cabinet (around 800 files) of women who posed for me beyond just portraits.

I am now about to be 84 and the time will come when I will have met my oblivion. It will be only then that many of these women will publicly bragg, “I was photographed by Alex Waterouse-Hayward.” It will be only then that I will be rich and famous.

In this blog I have placed photographs of Quilla (and invented name) who had a face.