I don’t really have any worthwhile early early stories of my personal photography, but I have one from spring 1993 (I started taking pictures in 1978). It was a ‘Photography Workshop in France’ that was conducted through my undergrad still photography program at Ryerson Polytechnic University (now called Toronto Metropolitan University) in Toronto. Four teachers and eight students were part of this inaugural edition of the workshop and it was also a credit course for us. Part of the course involved visiting many photo collections and get a ‘behind the scenes’ experience of them as well. One of the teachers on the trip, Marta Braun, had just published a extensively-researched book on Étienne-Jules Marey and was getting rave reviews, so she opened a lot of doors for us (she was subsequently made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (France) among many other honours). Two other teachers had extensive knowledge of France and had both lived there (one of them ran the resource center and was responsible for Ryerson’s photo collection), and the fourth teacher was French and was living in Meudon. The Musée Carnavalet, the SFP, Musée D’Orsay, the Musée des Monuments were just few of the places we visited, and curators and conservationists were only too happy to show us everything. One of the big highlights for me was looking through Andre Kertesz’s negatives and contact sheets, as well as passing around Peter Henry Emerson’s platinum-palladium prints. Once in a lifetime to be sure. We also had a number of assignments we had to complete during this 23 day period.
In addition to the academic work, we were also there to experience France and take pictures of what we saw and moved us. This was my first time visiting anything outside North America so it was a bit intimidating at first. Slowly but surely, however, I began to embrace this new environment and culture. Not sure how successful I was at depicting any of it, but it definitely opened a door that I think played a role in shaping some of the future work I ended up doing and continue to do. I think it also helped overcome a lot of fears (like the fear of photographing strangers), although I still confront that when I’m in those situations.
Anyhow, here are a few photos from that 1993 experience - I’m sure you’ve seen these on RFF previously. All shot with an M2 and Tri-X.
Carrousel de la Tour Eiffel by
Vince Lupo, on Flickr
Untitled 1993-3 by
Vince Lupo, on Flickr
Untitled 1993 #4 by
Vince Lupo, on Flickr
waitin for the bus by David B, on Flickr
