Bethel Abstract 1
When, or at what point, does a photograph become something other than a photograph? Something different than, or perhaps even more than a photograph?
The word "photography" is derived from the Greek “phos” (light) and “graphe” (writing/drawing) and literally means “drawing with light”. The term was coined around 1839 by Sir John Herschel and others to describe the process of creating images by recording light on a sensitive surface, and although digital photography has radically changed the process by which images are created, the description still roughly but accurately applies.
On a Sunday morning not long ago, I sat outside the heavy, sliding glass doors that close off the sanctuary at Bethel Church, while the worship musicians inside rehearsed the morning repertoire. The ceiling lights of the Fellowship Hall behind me were reflected in the frosted glass panels, and I reached for the most convenient camera available to me … my wife’s smartphone … and I snapped a picture of what I saw. Later, when I had some time to process it, I created sort of a double exposure of the image, combined the layers, played with the contrast and saturation levels and ended up with something that I think is greater, and more pleasing, than the sum of its parts.
A Stairwell View
While in Winnipeg, Manitoba one long weekend, we stayed at the historic Fort Garry Hotel on Broadway, and of course, I took my camera along on the trip. The venerable old CP Rail hotel was a treasure trove of grand imagery, a photographer’s paradise, as was Union Station and The Forks Market, which were within easy walking distance.
Back in the early ‘70s, when The Guess Who was beginning to have big radio hits and I was a fresh-faced, up-and-coming folksinger playing my guitar in the coffeehouses, I wandered into the lounge here to see jazz guitarist Lenny Breau, who Chet Atkins once referred to as “the world’s greatest guitar player”, playing there with a trio.
I’ve been meaning to organize some of these Winnipeg photos into some kind of presentable package, and I promise to upload them into this gallery format soon, now that the website is a reality. For the time being, though, here’s one of my playful shots from deep within the hotel’s walls that I hope you’ll enjoy.
Small Town Scenes
A photographer friend who lives in a big city in southern Ontario once asked me, with a bit of sympathy, if I ever find myself running out of subject matter way out here on the (boring, desolate) Canadian prairie. I imagine that he was perhaps feeling sorry for me way out here in the boondocks with a sparsity of prospects. My answer to him was that aside from the awe-inspiring natural scenery and the endless landscapes available, the small towns here are chockfull of great photographic opportunities.
There are a lot of very talented people and quite a few eccentrics who live in small towns in Saskatchewan. Some have lived here all their lives and for various reasons never left. Others have been kind of washed up onto these shores by life’s storms and stayed. But creativity finds its own means of expression here, and an enjoyable day trip across the prairie and back can reap rich photographic rewards if you’re willing to make the effort.
This unusual window full of dusty old glass bottles and insulators is one of many similar colourful sets in an old building that rests in a little town about a forty minute drive from my home.