last Sunday morning

A while back I put together a print portfolio of portraits I made at the Drop In Centre to show to Sister Christine. I still haven’t the guts up to show her, but I did bring it in one Saturday to show Alberta, who runs the place during my shifts. My intention was only to show her, but people gathered round and looked through them. It turns out that Alberta knows Gerry, who moved back to Sudbury before I could give him a print. She mentioned that she’d like to have a print of Gerry’s picture, so I took it out and gave it to her. He comes down for cancer treatments and from the look on her face it seems like his prognosis may not be so great. I felt so pleased she wanted it.

Alberta’s partner also looked at the photos, and commented that he thought they were really good. So I asked him if I could photograph him, and he answered no. I’ve also long wanted to photograph Alberta – I did once but the light was awful and the picture didn’t turn out at all – she looks like a 50s movie star. However, after she saw my pictures, she said no.

That kind of threw me. What were they seeing in my photographs that made them not want to be included? She’d agreed before, so what had changed now that she the pictures? I tried not to dwell on it, but I was concerned.

Anyways, a few weeks later, Alberta’s partner Paul sat down with me and said he’d perhaps been too hasty in responding to my request. He’d been caught a bit off guard but now that he’d thought about it, he realized they didn’t have any pictures of each other, and they would like me to photograph them after all. I feel so honoured to be asked, and of course just plain delighted. So last weekend I went to their home and photographed them. Paul does all of Alberta’s eye makeup; he’s largely responsible for her movie star looks. So they allowed me to photograph him doing her aesthetics. They also asked me to share any pictures online until they’d seen them, and they haven’t yet so I can’t share them, but I’m really happy with the shots.

I am often amazed by what people will share with me. I love that they let me into their home and into their daily rituals. For me, it is always an exchange, one I don’t take lightly.

This is what I’ve been meaning to blog about for two weeks straight, but I wasn’t sure how to do it. And now that I have, it seems a lot more boring than I’d intended. Oh well…

Less than two weeks until we go to New York!

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