Fort Ogilvie (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

In some ways I am frustrated with my fort images - there is so much to work with, and so many different aspects to approach the ruins from that it is almost inconceivable that I will ever complete working with them. This is I suppose a positive element, but realizing that a project can never be truly wrapped up changes one's approach to it. 

4"x5" film

The image above is titled "Homage to H.R.Geiger", and though there are no biological elements to the image the moment I saw it through the camera, I knew what the title would be. The source of the image is a WWI gun, still in its emplacement. Prior to this year I pointedly avoided including the few remaining guns in my images, the obvious reminder of the purpose of the forts clashed with my understanding of the sites as they are now.

4"x5" film

The remainder of the afternoon was spent working my way about 300 feet from where I started - a very contemplative, introspective day of photographing. In some ways this was one of the best sessions I've ever done in a fort, having both the time and frame of mind necessary to reveal what I sought. The clarity of the H.R.Geiger image was in my mind the rest of the day, and I couldn't have been more pleased with its translation onto film.

The Bridge Approaches (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Though it doesn't really show in my on-line work, one of my passions is industrial photography. Halifax isn't exactly the most industrial city in the world, and therein lies the reason why there are few industrial scenes on line. All that said, for two or three years now, I have been mulling over the idea of photographing the overpasses and approaches to the MacDonald bridge, in the north end of the city. There's something I find incredibly compelling about sweeping concrete overpasses and uneven swatches of pavement arcing around corners. It is a very visual place for me.

6x12 cm film

The day was promising to be a hot one, so I set out at 8:30 am, late enough to avoid morning rush-hour, and early enough to beat the worst of the heat. The strange thing is that as clear as the approaches were as a subject in general, I had a very hard time finding images that expressed exactly what I perceived in them - it was one of the most challenging sessions I've had in a while - I could see the potential, but found it very hard to translate onto film.

4"x5" film

In the end, there were a few strong images, and an awful lot of almost. I'll be returning again (and again and again?) to work with the space - having started, I know that the images are there just waiting to be revealed. The funny thing was that I was so worried about cars, and they weren't a problem at all - I had more problem avoiding having people in the images.

4"x5" film

Much of these images come directly from experiencing the work of a fellow photographer on the net, Phil Buehler. Phil's images reminded me of what I loved about urban spaces, but haven't looked at in a quite some time. My work has no direct similarities to his, but the overpass project is a direct result of viewing his photographs.

A Pivotal Day (Chebucto Head, Nova Scotia)

Canada Day. Mid afternoon. Hot, sunny, and to be honest, a little boring. A friend called and asked if I was up for going somewhere to photograph, so I said "Sure, what about Chebucto Head - it's a hot day and there at least we'll be by the sea and be able to catch some breezes."

6x12 cm film

So we went out for a little while - I could have done with twice the time, but as it was I who had to get back to the city, I really can't complain. The thing is, the session was really good - I got the strongest image yet of the summer (above), and was hot on the trail of several others - time and technical screw-ups precluded any other successes though. It was a strange day, as I took photos of things I would have previously ignored.

4"x5" film

That I was seeing things differently is a direct result of correspondence with Joy Yourcenar, a poet from Maine. She had written me in response to my photographs, proposing a collaboration between us. Over our correspondence, poems and ideas have flown back and forth challenging and provoking me, and making me itch to get out and photograph in a way I'd never itched before.

4"x5" film

Canada Day was the first time the influence of Joy appeared in my work, and I was really quite surprised at how much my visual frame had changed. Joy's poems, and her comments on my work had altered how I looked at things - trite but true none the less. The image of the granite rock with the water pool would never have been taken made without Joy's involvement in my creative vision.

Fort George (The Citadel) (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

The heart of Fortress Halifax is the Citadel, which looms over the city on an ancient drumlin. It is the most heavily restored of all the sites around Halifax, and as such, hasn't held as much interest for me visually. Given the degree of my documentation of the other forts, however, I decided it made sense to begin visually recording the Citadel, so I could incorporate it into my larger group of images of Fortress Halifax.

4"x5" film

One of the advantages of the Citadel, from a documentary perspective, is that it still contains much of the original installed hardware - guns, windows, fixtures. These artifacts are stripped from the ruined sites, leaving it to the imagination of the viewer. At the Citadel, everything is restored to the late 1860's, at the height of Fortress Halifax's strength.

4"x5" film

This session was a mixed blessing. I truly made some successful images - well seen as Weston might say, but there is still some element of the photos being forced - little passion bleeds through them. I will return to the Citadel again, and build upon the foundation made this day. 

 4"x5" film

York Redoubt (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

The challenge of photography is that you have to bring something to the camera to photograph. Unlike painting, where a blank canvas can hold anything the artist desires, a camera must be pointed at something to generate an image. The problem, sometimes, is what.

6x12 cm film

On this day, I went to York Redoubt, one of the outlying forts surrounding Halifax. I was restless and uninspired - wanting to photograph more than wanting to make images - wanting to handle my camera and go through the motions, but not at all sure of what I would point it at.

4"x5" film

The amazing thing about York Redoubt is its position on a huge hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The upper fort still contains the original RML cannons, while the lower battery, of a much later vintage, has been stripped of its more modern weaponry. In seven years of photographing the ruins of Fortress Halifax, I had never before made images of the guns. This day, out of pure frustration for something to image, I turned my camera on them.

4"x5" film

The results are less than ideal - the use of the super-wide 65mm super-angulon lens lead to too much distortion for my "traditional" tastes, and the second most successful image, to the right, gives little sense of the ranged line of the RML guns receding. I have always struggled with landscapes, and this day was no different. Apart from the first image, of a receding wave on the shore line, little I produced this day was more than an exercise in exposure, composition and technique. I feel like I was going through the motions. There is no simple solution to what is happening with my work...I feel like something has to change but I am at a loss as to what, or how. I will not give up though, regardless. Photography is too much of a challenge for me. I will prevail, eventually.

Point Pleasant Park (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

4"x5" film

I got up bright and early on this Wednesday, and took a bus to Point Pleasant Park, to get the morning sun shining on the Point Pleasant Battery, which faces out towards the harbour entrance, Fort McNab and York Redoubt.

Getting to the battery at shortly after 8 a.m. gave me just the light I'd hoped for, strong raking light that pulled all the cracks and fissures out of the concrete. The only drawback to this is the morning sun created a very high contrast situation, but this is where the view camera excels. The first dozen or so exposures I made were deliberately over-exposed, then under-developed in the darkroom, thereby keeping the contrast down to a reasonable level. Using an orange filter kept the sky printable, but did lead to a 1/2 second exposure at f/22.

4"x5" film

The rest of the morning's work went well, with the majority of the images being made at the Point Pleasant Battery. The image to the left was produced with the 65mm super-angulon wide-ange lens pointed almost straight down (I had to be careful not to get the tripod legs in the image). The curve of rock and metal in the foreground is the remains of the old battery, which is directly under the current battery. As I was working, a park warden came by and told me that years ago they had dumped 300 truck loads of fill in front of the fort. All of it has since been washed away!

6x12 cm film

Over the morning, I shot far more with the 6x12 roll-back than I did sheet film, but I suspect that this was because there were so many strong horizontals (being essentially landscape photos). For more than 90% of the images I used the 65mm super-wide lens, which never ceases to amaze me. When I used 35mm heavily, I almost never used wide angle lenses, so this sudden obsession with the super-wide on the view camera is really out of character. Part of me still thinks it's the "new-toy" syndrome, but again, the images are strong, and I don't feel that they look overly wide. The real test will come in the next couple of months, as I start working with the Nude again; I seldom use any lens but my 210mm for nudes so it should be interesting to see what happens.

York Redoubt (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

6x12 cm film

The spring so far is most dismal where the weather is concerned. Every second day seems like it's raining, and all I can do is hope for sunny weekends. Luck was with me on the Victoria Day weekend, however, and on Monday I set off for York Redoubt to do some images of the York Shore Battery. Though I did make a fair number of images on 4"x5" film, almost all those that I felt really strongly about were made on roll film - I'm not sure if this has as much to do with strong imagery as much as fascination with a new toy, but regardless, I got some images worth the effort.

6x12 cm film

One of the strongest images of the day, and so far this one has really stuck with me, was of disconnected power pipes. To be honest, the shot screamed for colour film, so in the future I may re-approach it with that in the film-back. The exposure was long - 15 seconds, but I've pretty much worked out reciprocity failure, so the neg. is excellent. I am going to let this image sit for a while, but I suspect it'll end up as a large print somewhere on my walls. The act of putting a photo of a wall on a wall has always pleased me!

4"x5" film

The upshot of the afternoon was that new toys still fascinate me. The wide angle 65mm super-angulon lens in combination with the 120 roll back is constantly in use, but hopefully very shortly, it will simply become a possibility in my tool-set rather than the dominant instrument.

1996 Year in Review

4"x5" film

1996 was, in some ways, a study in opposites. It was in some ways the best summer of figure work I'd ever had, but at the same time, it was one of my most disappointing summers yet. The disappointment came from a chronic eye infection which plagued me throughout the summer. More than just painful, it caused me to become extremely light sensitive, and it was only on those few days when the infection was subsiding that I could comfortably shoot.

4"x5" film

What made it the best summer to date were the sessions I did with J_, who modeled for me on and off throughout the summer. I hadn't previously had the opportunity to work with the same model for more than two sessions, and had always suspected that the increased rapport would strengthen the images. J_ is a commercial model and a student, and as such had both the time and interest necessary to work with me. Initially, we had planned to trade her figure modelling for me in return for me producing portfolio images for her, but as it turned out, she decided she was happier just working on the fine art nudes with me, and going elsewhere to have her book done.

4"c5" film

J_ had never modeled nude before, but was very comfortable with the camera, and very quickly became good at working out poses and taking my sometimes cryptic directions. The first time we worked together was a mammoth session, going from 10 am to 8 PM, with lunch in-between. I had to reload my film-holders at lunch, and while I had the changing bag on the table, the waitress came over and asked J_ in hushed tones "Is he developing the film in there?" With a totally straight face, she held up some contact sheets and answered "Yes, he's already done these." She looked suitably impressed and walked off. I had a hard time suppressing my laughter.

4"x5" film

The main advantage of having the same model for several sessions in a row is that they become very comfortable with the process, and that speeds up the work enormously. There is inevitably a period with each new model in which they have to adjust to working with me, and usually, with modelling nude. After J_'s first session with me, each successive one produced stronger and stronger images, building upon the previous session's work.

4"x5" film

The biggest change which J_ brought to my work was the introduction of water. I had used water in my work before in a very limited sense, but over the summer of 1996, it eventually became a central theme to my work.

4"x5" film

In some senses, 1996 was a one model summer. I may have missed the possibilities which would have been present if I had worked with a selection of models, but the relationship that was built between J_ and I showed strongly in the later images, and more than proved that a single model, worked with over an extended period, could produce strong work.

4"x5" film

The introduction of water to my figure work was a revelation for me; all my life I have lived next to the ocean, and not once had I thought to incorporate water with the body. The water nudes J_ and I did were so spontaneous and different from what I'd previously created that they challenged the restrictions that I'd placed upon my work - both in terms of subject and cameras.

4"x5"

There was little other work produced during 1996 besides images of the nude. Some rock abstracts and architectural images were made between sessions, but much of the summer I spent nursing my eye and wishing I could go out and photograph. It was a form of torture in a way, having a model keen and eager to work with me, and having an infection which directly interfered with my working process. At the time it was frustrating, but in retrospect, the strength of work I produced spoke for itself, and if I had produced half the number of strong images I would have been happy.

4"x5" film

1996 was in some ways the test of my ideas of how my work has naturally evolved. I spent the spring finishing up the previous years work, and doing some experimental images. The summer was spent making new work and processing film and contact prints. And to the winter was the actual refinement of the year's work, with the printing and selection of the work carrying though until the next spring.

8"x10" film

For the first time since I had started photographing a decade before, there was a sense of satisfaction the year through. I did produce a few studio nudes towards the end of the year, but these were more to play with colour film than anything serious.

6x7 cm film

It took me five years to refine my vision of what I wanted to show the world into a concrete form, and another five years to learn how to incorporate that vision into my life. In some ways I feel I have come full circle, having gone though a fascination with technical and details, back to feeling that the image as the ultimate end is the most important aspect of photography. All I can hope is that the vision and work continues to grow over the next decade.

1995 Year in Review

8"x10" film

1995 began with some intensive studio sessions, with both single and couple models. The studio is a difficult, intensely problematic place for me, giving incredibly rich imagery, yet with little content beyond the obvious. More than anything, I use the studio as a place to play during the winter, until it is warm enough to work outside again. The work I did in the studio this winter, however, was the strongest yet, though that is more because of the images of the couple I worked with, than as a result of any breakthrough in approach or perception.

4"x5" film

Once the weather warmed in the spring, I began to photograph again outdoors. Working with A_ on a huge breakwater lead to one of my strongest nudes to date, an image made stronger by the ambiguity of gender present in the image.

4"x5" film

The summer of 1995 marked the first time I exhibited my figure work in public, in a group exhibition entitled "re:nude", which I curated at the Anna Leonowen's Gallery at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). The exhibit was to be an overview of photographic work addressing the body which had been produced at NSCAD over the previous year. The preparation of my work for the exhibit was a challenge, being the first time I had to layout my entire body of work to date and select those images which best presented what I wished to say.

The interesting outcome of this exhibition was the realization that there were only five images from the previous six years of work with the Nude which were totally successful. I could have easily selected 20 or 30 images to show that came close to fulfilling my aesthetic, but if I had to had to display even seven prints, as opposed to five, I doubt I could have accomplished it. On the whole, the first public showing of my work was a really positive experience, both from the perspective of the selection of the work, and the reception of the exhibition.

4"x5" film

It is something that I think I harp on, but the one hard thing about working with the figure is that one is totally dependent upon another to create images. The dynamic which is created by introducing another into the creative process is indescribable; when it works well, it is like an uncontrollable flash-fire. When there is the drive to create, however, and no-one to work with, the closest parallel I can draw is the frustration of an itch that has to be scratched.

4"x5" film

Previously the most viable solution to this creative conundrum, however, had been forts, but this summer, forts were either inaccessible or not speaking as they usually did, so I began to flounder and scramble desperately for subjects that would give me what I sought. The two rock images here were the first successful images that I made that were neither nudes nor forts. It would take another three years for the seed that they placed to grow to maturity, but they did answer a need, and give me a revelation that what I wish to say is less rooted in the subject than the vision.

4"x5" film

The remainder of the summer was a rich mix of work with the forts and a good session with S_ again. The fort images were predominantly produced with my 8x10 large format camera, drawing heavily on the influence of the Royal Engineer's photos from a century before. The nudes with S_ were among my first attempt is year to work in woods. The vast majority of my nudes to this date are set against rock and shoreline, and I would be the first to admit that this is a rather limiting selection of settings. The other major accomplishment in the work with S_ was a number of very strong Infra-red nudes we produced. Infra-red film had been something I had played with for several years, without particularly successful results (partially through technical errors, and Kodak's particularly bad instructions). This summer was different though, and served to convince me that IR nudes could be successful and strong.

35mm infrared film

Given the success of the IR nudes from the summer, in the fall of 1995, when I did some studio images of A_ and V_, I did about 1/3 of the images in both conventional and IR film. In the studio, the sculptural quality of Infra-red is enhanced by the ability to direct light across the body, describing mass through light and texture alone, in a way that is impossible with traditional film.

4"x5" film

The nudes of A_ and V_ were successful on many different levels. A_ was a very good friend, and wanted to work with me in the studio with V_, having been very impressed with the previous couple nudes I had shown him. Though the images shown here don't depict it, one of the richest points to the session was the there was considerable difference in the skin colour of the two, creating a rich contrast between his skin and hers.

35mm film

In October, I had the chance to attend an Arts Conference in Montreal, and used it as an opportunity to challenge my attachment to the view camera. It wasn't practical to take my 4x5, a tripod and other accouterments, so I made myself a deal - no view camera, but the best I could do in 35mm - a top of the line Leica camera, with three unparalleled lenses, and five rolls of my favourite film, T-Max 100. For five days, I spent my evenings and mornings walking around Montreal, finding images and settings that drew me in and struggling to capture them on film. Even before I developed the negatives, I knew the results. Every image I liked, my first thought was "would be strong if I'd had a view camera". The images were little more than sketches. I was so used to the recording power of the view camera that even 8"x10" enlargements began to breakdown on a technical level for me, though no-one else would have seen anything to object to. All the images were, simply put, too small. There wasn't enough investment in them for the weight I wanted them to carry - they were too quick and easy. 1995 was the last time I used conventional 35mm film (as opposed to 35mm infrared film) for anything other than documentation, or making money.

Digital composite of 4"x5" film

When I returned from Montreal, I began to move from learning to creating in my Digital Photo Course. Where the first six weeks had been spent learning the basics of digital manipulation, we were now beginning to apply our new skill-set to our own images and vision. My final work for the digital course consisted of six images, each a combination of a natural element and a studio nude. I was so enthralled with the process after taking the course that I was convinced I would be working with digital to produce a larger set of nudes as soon as I could arrange for access to the equipment. I have since continued on the digital nudes, but not with the clarity I reached in the class. I think that, similar to the Fort Charlotte Project in 1994, the success of the digital nude project came as much out of the intensity of the work as the idea or process itself. Spending such a short time so focused on one subject reaps incredible rewards for me. Knowing this gave (and continues to give) me a further tool to apply to my future work.

1994 Year in Review

8"x10" film

One aspect of my photographic work that is under-represented on this site is my portrait photos. I haven't posted many for the simple reason that portraits seldom work beyond the immediate circle of friends of the subject...a photo of a stranger is simply that - an image of someone you do not know. I do love portraiture however, and continue to add to this body of work.

4"x5" film

Unlike my portraits, my Nude work has almost the opposite element; the anonymity of the model encourages the viewer to consider the universality of the body, and in some cases, even the mutability of gender. My early studio nudes avoided faces simply because my models were not comfortable with their identity being known. As my work grew though, I realized that if a Nude contained a face, it was a photo of a person, whereas, if it contained an anonymous model, it became an image about the body, not individuality. I often create nude portraits of my figure models, but seldom show these works, as they function in a very different way from the main body of my work with the figure.

4"x5" film

It is almost the reverse process with my images of the fortifications around Halifax. Generally speaking, my fort images are about specific sites, about the flow of history and time over the creations of man. Occasionally though, I do make a anonymous image, which speaks more about the aesthetics of time than the specifics of a location. This reversal of technique puzzled me for a long while, until 1994, when I started thinking about the ruins as individuals, with their own characters and flavours. In that context, the lack of "universal" images of the forts made sense. With my figure work, it is important for me to maintain a discussion about the general, while with the forts, I am discussing specifics of location and history.

8"x10" film

The summer of 1994 was very strong in regards to my figure work, having a unique opportunity built into it. A_, a friend from Scotland, was visiting for three weeks, and was basically to function as a live-in model for that entire period. While the weather didn't co-operate all the time during her visit, I did have the opportunity to work very intensely over a short period of time with a single model, something I hadn't previously had the opportunity to do.

35mm film

The work I produced with A_ was exceptional for several reasons. One, it was produced over a fairly short time period, which lead to a very strong rapport between her and I, giving more comfort to the second and subsequent session than is usually present. Two, A_ was more interested in modelling for me than for herself; her reason for modelling was because she wanted to help me with my art, as opposed to wanted nudes of herself. This subtly changed the interaction between us, and more experiments and risk were tried than usual. A_'s patience allowed me to use the 8x10 camera (though she did fall asleep once), and produce a surprising amount of images in a two week period.

8"x10" film

I think, in some ways, the most surprising results of the work I did with A_ was the fact that though she was keen to model, and was very interested in seeing the contact prints from the sessions, she didn't ask for a single print. She was very pleased with the work, and that I had images I really liked, but simply didn't want copies for herself. It was a very different experience from all my previous models, who were interested in both helping me with my work, and in receiving prints for their own.

4"x5" film

When I started back at the Art College in the fall, one of my first photo session was in the studio with S_, a model I'd worked with earlier in the summer. She, like A_, was modelling more to propel my work than out of personal interest. We'd never worked together in the studio, and the session was a real success. By this point I was pretty much intuitive in the studio, using light rather than struggling with it, and as a result of the conscious breakthrough of the previous year with the idea of Mortalities, I even had a clue as to why I was making the images. The fact that studio work still remained hollow and less meaningful to me was insurmountable, but the quality of the images was closer to what I sought than anything else to date.

8"x10" film

In the fall of 1994, as part of my final photo course at the Art College, I took a documentary photo course. I saw it as an opportunity to finalize the format and content of the work I'd been producing on the Fortress Halifax. The timing of the course coincided perfectly with some conservation/restoration work that Parks Canada was doing on Fort Charlotte, located on George's Island in Halifax Harbour.

8"x10" film

In some ways, the Fort Charlotte Project was an ideal situation, as I had the time and energy to dedicate to documenting the site, and an environment which permitted me the freedom to experiment with form and content without any preconceived ideas of what is "right". I was in pure heaven for the weeks that I photographed on the island, both because it was an incredible subject, and because it represented a period of uninterrupted work, something that occurs only on rare occasions.

4"x5" film

The major accomplishment of the Fort Charlotte Project wasn't so much the strength of the images, though those more than met my expectations but rather the final layout, and the multi-layering which I hit upon as a presentation technique. By using copies made from the original Royal Engineer's plans in juxtaposition with my contemporary photographs, I made a link between the pre-historical intent of the site and its post-historical outcome (pre-historical because the plans show the intent before the realization, and post-historical because the photos are after the site has ceased to have its original meaning). In the final piece there was no reference to the actual purpose of the fort, though it was implicit within the architecture. I addressed the site as a purely aesthetic space, and permitted the viewer to draw their own conclusions about the site's place in history.

Reproductions of original plans, 4"x5" and 8"x10" film

The final project consisted of seven interwoven panels. Produced before my initiation into the world of Digital imaging, the final prints represented a pinnacle in my darkroom work to date, printed with multiple negatives on single sheets of paper, each print requiring between 6 and 9 separate printings, each with a different mask. Today, if I was to put together this project, I'd assemble it in Photoshop and have far more control over the registration and layout. As it is though, the final project was a major step forward, both in design, and simply as a technical achievement.