My grandmother gave me a Diana box camera and three rolls of Agfa 620 black and white film when I was eight years old. I shot two rolls following my dog around the yard. I think that two of those photos were in focus! I was hooked!
I grew up moving from BC to Québec to Ohio to France to Holland to Italy and then back to Ohio. My dad used to shoot photos, I think he bought most of Kodak’s slide film, and using his Kodak Retina 35 mm he’d document our overseas adventures. Any chance I could, I’d sneak a roll of film and “borrow” his camera for a quick shoot. In the late 60s I found a 35 mm fixed lens camera, with a Zeiss 50 mm lens, in a pawn shop for $25.00, and I was in business. Borrowing my dad’s camera and using this 50 mm lens forced me to plan out my photo opportunities and to get close to my subjects. I stuck with black and white film, colour was too expensive to buy and process. I’ve always tried to interpret what I see using form and light to enhance the image, whether on film or as a digital file.
I studied photojournalism at university, I always liked those black and white images that told a story, but assignments pushed me to learn to photograph landscapes and dislike formal shots of people. I developed an infatuation with rusted machinery and graffiti, those images seem to dominate many of my shoots. After moving back to Vancouver, BC for a few years, I ended up teaching in a logging camp on the north end of Vancouver Island, and a new world of nature photography opened up for me, and as a bonus, the high school already had a darkroom built into the back of the science lab!
I’m presently living in Royston, BC, and I’m exploring a new area of the Island, as well as travelling both in Canada and in Europe. I’ve slowly switched over to digital photography, but I still have a working 35 mm Nikon SLR and rolls of black and white film in the fridge!
Like George Zimbel, I’m finding that I have to move quicker on producing new images and print unseen images from the fifty years of negatives, while coming to the realization that time is finite.
If you see any images that you like, please send me a note and I’ll provide more information about the image and pricing.