Photographing the Saints!

I’ve had three shows with Contact over the years - plenty photos in the Star, the Sun and Globe & Mail – Downbeat, Jazztimes, JAZZIZ, numerous CDs and portrait work. Travel photos – etc. Yet nothing has done more to get my work seen and established as Facebook and I have all of you to thank. This is my gallery. I’m not a frigid photo snob who thinks everyone is about to steal or replicate my work. I live in today’s world and the audience is far broader and better educated on many levels. You know what junk looks like and you say so!

This is year twenty for me packing around a camera and it’s like walking hand and hand with God. I see everything – this is one amazing world we inhabit!

There were times in Havana I just didn’t want to lift the camera another moment then I thought about what Graham Shaw said – “shoot those fucking cars!” Yes, Graham! Sir!

Photography like anything else in life we have a passion for is hard work. There are moments you are just itching to get going and return with shit and others you drag your sorry ass uphill and come back with certified gold. It’s about persistence and practice. It also really helps being an extrovert and genuinely enjoy the company and language of people.

I blame my Italian grandmother who ran three dairy farms in the mountains of Pennsylvania. She came here in 1974 and turned this stagnant pool upside down. She insisted I take her everywhere – the subway where she hunted every woman in mourning black and took up residence next to them and by two stops later was best friends. Stores – I couldn’t get her out of Kensington Market – by the time we pried her loose she had promised to come back and visit a dozen establishments with recipes and messages from the old country – and yes she went back to Rome and wreaked havoc.

Nellie knew no fear! She saw the world for what it is – a giant family deep with stories and life experiences and everything - no matter how insignificant is worthy of time and most fascinating.
Ms. Michelone thanks for opening my good eyes!