The Folks

My dad grew up poor, and worked from an early age to take care of his family. He then (through endless hard work) became a successful businessman, and took care of his own family. Now he's old, sick, and still taking care of my mother (who has Alzheimer's disease), because that's the way he does things.

The Future of Rock?

Maybe. Right now she's more inclined to be the future of law: but ten is young to make serious career choices.

Charitable Idiots

I don't know what it it about the not-for profits (why does the term always change? Are people dumb enough to think that "non-profit" means they run at a loss no matter what? Is "charity" bad, like "handicapped", now?) in this town, but I find them fucking hard to do work for. And I mean, they don't usually seem to want me to shoot for them (for free): I can't count the number of times I've been simply ignored when I make the offer. A couple of examples: the IWK Foundation, who thought I'd be perfect to do a long-term project on sick children at the IWK, but rejected me because I insisted that I would have to maintain copyright to my work, and reserved the right to exhibit it. Not sell or license, just show to people. The nice lady told me she didn't think I was entirely altruistic; no fucking shit, I do enjoy my art and like to be able to show it around.

Now-and-then, though, I get to some cool stuff, like a two-day visit to the Salvation Army camp near New Glasgow. All the kids there were having a hard time of it for one reason or another, and seemed to have a huge time getting away from the city. But it didn't all end well: after I turned in the proofs, the Army PR droid (an incredibly loud, incredibly earnest recovering-fun-haver named Ron Zima) asked for high-res copies of everything on DVD. I told him that I would provide retouched files on a job-by-job basis when they were needed: and I never heard from him again. Waste of time, but good shots.

Kate

I've been hassling my friend Kate (a social worker who works for the laudable Leave Out Violence NS youth organisation) to let me do her portrait for quite a while: she's a striking and entertaining subject.

So here I am.

"Why don't you ever update your website?" asked Barb. "I give the address to people, and they tell me they're always checking but it never changes." "Well," I responded, "it's a pain-in-the-ass to update it, I'm busy, and anyway: I like those pics, they're a good intro to my shit. But maybe I'll start a blog so there's more stuff to see."

So here: have some more shit to see. I'm the best available-light black-and-white portrait photographer in Halifax, Nova Scotia (not such a big deal) and one of the best I've ever seen (bigger deal); and an insanely good retoucher, too (definitely the number-one guy from here to Montréal, and frankly I'm not that impressed by the Montréal dude who's been hyped to me).

Want to have me shoot you, or for you? Email me. My rates range from free to very expensive, depending on the project. I like to work for charities and social-justice causes.

Enjoy. And if you don't, well, in the immortal words of MC Rob Base: "So what? I don't care."