close your eyes and hope for the best

Fog Horse (click image to enlarge)

this anti-cold weather, people photographer would have blown right by this scene faster than George W. Bush walking out of an Al Gore directed film.

My good friend William Anderson had recently introduced me to the work of San Francisco based photographer Michael Kenna. William had a black and white framed print of Kenna’s in his office, and I was intrigued by both the complexity and simplicity of it, the screaming metaphors of the unknown, of mystery, and in this time of bigger is grander ‘tableau’ era - the powerfully small size of it. I wanted to know more.

Anyway, fast-forward about 3 months. I’m sitting in an Earl’s restaurant on the west side of Edmonton, enjoying a ceasar salad, and between whistles of the hockey game on tv…reading an article on Kenna I had managed to track down.

(more…)

Couple near oil tank explosion, Calgary Alberta Canada. (click image to enlarge)

Not knowing how dangerous the situation really was, the health risks, the financial costs, how long they’d be away, or if they’d ever see their home again, uncertainty was their new companion.

I noticed a lady wearing this wonderful orange printed shirt gazing right at me. Instantly the hundred or so other people in my line of sight no longer existed. I approached, and quickly realized that it wasn’t me she was looking at, but rather she was looking past me seeing whom she might recognize from the large gatherings. Awkwardly I introduced myself anyway and asked if I could take her picture. Without hesitation she agreed and I began.

I was astounded at how serene and unruffled she was when I was photographing her. She just looked at me impassively, almost awaiting direction. And I was about to give none. Everything felt in slow motion. It was that amazing and vulnerable space where thirty seconds feels like three years. And just when I thought I had consumed enough of her time, a man appeared, her husband, and he too wanted to be in the picture.

(more…)

Darrell Lecorre’s Grandma, Saskatchewan Canada. (click image to enlarge)

About a month later I went back to visit Grandma. I brought a few enlargements with me and was quite excited about seeing her reaction to the pictures…
I was so curious to witness her reaction I could barely sleep the few nights before.

The Saskatchewan ground was wet with rainwater from the night before, and with her fragile hip and legs I was concerned if we should even attempt a picture so early in the morning, perhaps waiting until the sun dried the soil a little and trying later in the day or even the next. When I brought that up to her she said, “don’t be silly”.

We arrived at the location around 6:30am. It was very near the land that she used to farm. Slowly we made our way to the spot I had marked the day before. The ground being soft and slippery, I ran back to the vehicle and grabbed an old shovel that I had grabbed from her shed, to give her something for extra support and balance. I handed it to her and walked back to the camera, and when I turned around I found her shoveling the dirt near her feat.

I asked, “what are you doing”?

She replied, “shoveling”.

I said, “I know, but why”?

She quipped, “what else do you do with a shovel”.

(more…)