Montreal Artists: Patsy Van Roost

If you live in the Mile-End you’ve probably heard of the artist Patsy Van Roost a.k.a. the Mile-End fairy. If not, there’s a fair chance you’ve unknowingly witnessed some of her magic somewhere in Montreal. She’s fun, down to earth, likes to laugh. She’s not your typical artist. Her medium is the Mile-End, and she creates some of the most thoughtful and inspiring art projects I’ve seen. Her workshop, located in the heart of the Mile-End, is filled with fragments from old and current art projects. I stopped by to photograph a project she was working on for Valentine’s Day.

I initially met Patsy while photographing one of the workshops for 100in1day Montreal. The project she had contributed was Ici, un souvenir. Participants were invited to write a significant memory of theirs that happened in the Mile-End or Plateau and were asked to include the address or intersection where it had occurred.

Weeks of collecting memories passed. Then, overnight, she displayed over 400 of these hand-written memories all over the neighbourhood at the location where they had happened, effectively transforming the streets into a giant crowd-sourced storybook.

Over Christmas, I had the pleasure of photographing another one of her projects, Un Dessin à la Fenêtre. In collaboration with other artists, she created an advent calendar, in which an address, rather than chocolate, was hidden behind each day of December. If you were to go to that address, you’d find a fragment of a love story, lit throughout the night, hanging in the window. Each day, as you would open up the next tab and find the next address, you’d find yourself walking alongside your neighbours, merging together to the window where the next piece of the story would be discovered. Day after day, a new window would light up the neighbourhood. When all windows were revealed, Patsy hosted a little tour throughout the neighbourhood, hopping from one house to the next on a cold January night.

Patsy thanked me for photographing this cold adventure by mailing me a card. PHYSICAL MAIL! It made my day. And “card” is probably a conservative term here for what she creates, check out her boutique for hand-made letters, invitations, cards, etc., at papernurse.com).

Receiving this thank you card, seeing her workshop filled with hand-made letters, and experiencing her community-driven projects inspired me to do a little personal project. I’ve been diving into photo archives and printing out photographs to reconnect with people using physical mail rather than Facebook messages.

I’ve also been re-discovering the joys of licking envelopes and stamps.

Merci Patsy!

Click here to check out the gallery with the other Montreal Artists I've photographed!

Community Photography at Santropol

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear Santropol? If you’re thinking of the coffee, you haven’t spent enough time at the Santropol Roulant! It’s an amazing heart-warming organization composed of a small passionate staff and an effervescent community of volunteers. At their core is a meals-on-wheels service which delivers fresh meals to people living with a loss of autonomy, but they also have urban agriculture programs, a bike shop and much more. I first got to know Santropol when Claudia worked there a few years ago, and just recently I had the pleasure of photographing their general assembly. Now I know that general assemblies might not sound like the most exciting thing to photograph, but their assemblies are different. Clients, volunteers, staff, and board members get together in a convivial atmosphere. Smiles are everywhere and there’s no shortage of sweet moments.

This might deviate a bit from my regular portrait and wedding photography, but it’s important for me to photograph subjects I care about (that’s why I’m not a car or nightclub photographer). In the end it’s still about capturing people and moments. As a side dish to my portrait bread and butter, I’ve been wanting to become sort of a Montreal community photographer, documenting the people and organizations contributing to Montreal’s culture.

If you want to make Montreal a better city, want to be part of a lovely multilingual and multigenerational community, learn how you can become a volunteer, even with your busy schedule. All the amazing human beings in Montreal are here. Really. What kind of bad person joins an organization like this? And if you’re reading my blog I’m sure you're great too so you’d be a perfect fit :)

In a typical Santropol Roulant fashion, I'll end this with a bit of dancing. Thanks for reading!

Vintage Folk Lifestyle Pictures at Rosie's Cabin

Music is always playing in the background, whether I’m in a photo session or editing pictures on Lightroom. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of acoustic folk. The vibe is contagious. You listen to The Tallest Man on Earth, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Of Monsters and Men, Sufjan Stevens, and suddenly you feel the urge to go on a road trip somewhere. If you can’t, you settle by following amazing photographers on Instagram that share this vintage folk vibe to their images. Check out pages like @livefolk and @folkmagazine, and photographers @lukegram & @alexstrohl. It’s a mix of landscape, adventure, lifestyle, traveling photography, wrapped up in a nice folk-y bow. I’m sure this style of photography is a fad, and there are recurring clichés, but I love it. For example, people in these photographs are usually small in comparison to the landscape, giving us a sense of scale of their surroundings. Usually, they’re not facing the camera, or their face isn’t visible. Probably makes it easier for us to imagine ourselves being where they are. And aesthetically, there’s usually a compressed dynamic range that lends a nostalgic film look to the photographs. So you scroll through these for a while, you get jealous of their photography, and then you look back at old pictures and search for images that show this sense of adventure and outdoor bliss.

I found these old pictures taken at the cabin of my friend Rosie. It feels like such a long time ago. I had completely forgotten about this fun trip and I’m glad I was able to document it. BRING A CAMERA WHEREVER YOU GO PLEASE.

Claudia sometimes braids her hair.

If you’ve been following me on Facebook, you may have noticed that I’ve been going back in my photo archives and sharing some of my favourite moments. Browsing through thousands of memories, it’s easy to get lost. You feel nostalgic. Then you find random hilarious pictures you forget the context of like this one.

I’m sorry. I don’t have any explanation for it.

Thanks for reading :)

Portrait of a Foodie

As a photographer freelancing for McGill News magazine, I get to meet interesting people. If you live in Montreal and you like food, check out Round Table Food Tours founded by Mélissa Simard. She leads several expeditions where you get to learn about Montreal’s rich culinary history, taste delicious food, and discover places you’ve never seen before.

I tagged along her Iberian food tour, for a Tapas Circuit. Knowing I’d be taking pictures of people happily eating in front of me, I made sure to stuff myself before going. Don’t photograph on an empty stomach. Your photography turns out cranky.

We explored Spanish and Portuguese cuisine in Montreal by visiting restaurants, specialty grocery stores, a dépanneur-looking chorizo-making place (or a dépanneur making chorizos? I’m not sure) among other things. We also saw Leonard Cohen’s house! I had no idea it was that close to downtown Montreal.

When I was there, concierges of hotels were taking the tour as part of a team-building activity. I think the tours would also be great for a group of foodie friends who want to try out a different experience. (One tour that looks particularly interesting is the Eat and Ride tour, where you bike around Montreal and eat local products.) My favourite part was seeing how the store and restaurant owners were so close to Mélissa. She seemed to be friends with everyone, knocking on windows, waving hello as we passed in front of a restaurant not even part of the tour. I thought I’d just stay to take a quick portrait, but I ended staying for much more, and did not complain. The perks of being a photographer!

It was a lovely spring day. You know that feeling after a long Montreal winter when it hits 0 degrees and you can just walk around outside in a t-shirt? Since that day of course we've had a few extra days of winter.

I sneaked in a few portraits of Mélissa between locations and also in action. It’s always easy when you have someone who smiles constantly!

Portrait & Headshot of a Moose

Chocolate Moose. Not Chocolate Mousse. Chocolate Moose. The animal. If you Google that (and scroll past Martha Stewart’s chocolate mousse recipe), you’ll find the Chocolate Moose Theatre Company. They’re a fairly new theatre company based in Montreal ‘seeking to produce accessible, affordable, quality theatre’. I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with them a few times and seeing them perform at the Mainline Theatre. I took a few portraits and headshots for promo material, and also got the chance to photograph them behind the scenes prior to one of their shows. Ever wondered what actors do behind the scenes to warm up before a performance? For these guys, it involved a short pep talk, some breathing exercises, a bit of line reciting, and then, my favourite, yelling the words sphincter and hippopotamus at the top of their lungs. That’s the secret behind a great performance, folks.

Andrew Cameron, co-founder of Chocolate Moose, in the process of transforming into Dr. Faustus.

Nothing gets you going like a bit of screaming and making animal sounds. 

This is Emily Murphy, co-founder of Chocolate Moose. I met her years ago as the friend of the sister of a friend. She’s now blonde and studying theatre at Columbia University.

I also took a few headshots of them and made some promo material for their shows The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine and Richard III. Actors are great subjects to work with as a photographer since they take direction well and can immediately go in character if prompted.

Portrait of Andrew Cameron as Ernest.

Portrait of Alina Gotcherian as Ernestine.

Headshot of Alina Gotcherian.

Headshot of Andrew Cameron.

Promo material. This is Martin Law, co-founder of Chocolate Moose Theatre, as Richard III.

Martin sat under my studio lights and channeled his inner sinisterness (that’s a word) as we shot multiple variations on this portrait. It’s remarkable how minute movements of the eyebrows and mouth completely changed the shot. We went through dozens of pictures before settling for this one.

I like this one. I turned on my camera and lights and took this test shot before adjusting any settings. He looks pensive, but he’s actually just figuring out this Rubik’s cube-like puzzle.

You can visit their Facebook page to stay updated on their upcoming shows.

You think Martin's III doesn't fit his hairstyle, you have any questions, or you want to discuss potential projects? Write to me!

Lifestyle Photos at the Cabin

Despite the record-setting colds in Montreal, here I stand alive. Winter fought a valiant battle, but was ultimately no match for my wool socks, cozy sweaters, and kettle. To enjoy the last few weeks of winter, we rented out Claudia’s parents’ cabin, located conveniently just an hour away from Montreal in Chertsey, Quebec. The cabin overlooks a frozen lake and sits by a forest covered in a knee-deep blanket of snow. Snowy evergreen forests are ridiculously photogenic with their muted tones. You can almost feel the stillness of the cold crisp air in photographs. After exploring the outdoors or skating on the frozen lake, we had a hot tub to thaw in, great food, and warm company. Can't wait until next time.

A few of these pictures have a lifestyle-vibe to them. I'd love to do more lifestyle photography. One of my biggest inspirations and my favourite photographer for a long time has been Nick Onken. You know that feeling when you've just discovered a small band that really resonates with you? And then they get bigger and bigger and you feel like you should receive some sort of compensation for being with them since the start? That's what I feel like with Nick. Before his podcast, before his appearances on podcasts, before he was mentioned by JoeyL on Creative Live, before his book, I found his work somehow.

His style has evolved over time, but his photography has always been consistently genuine and candid-looking. His pictures seem like they're taken from a regular day of hanging out with his friends. The models seem like they're actually having fun. There's a lot of lifestyle photography out there that looks extremely staged - it's probably the biggest challenge when shooting lifestyle pictures.

I've been thinking of ways to offer lifestyle photography as a service to regular people, rather than just advertising / commercial work. Imagine if you could just hang out with your friends somewhere in Montreal while a lifestyle photographer documents your day. I'd love to offer that service to people. And I'd love to have my own pictures like that. We often think of capturing romantic relationships (engagement shoots, weddings, couple photoshoots, etc.), but rarely do we spend the time and money to capture our friendships. Ok I know it sounds corny but it's true. I'll include more thoughts about this in a future blog post. Feel free to share your thoughts with me.

Gardening in Montreal's Botanical Garden

My tomato plant keeps teasing me. It promises me a great bounty and produces flower after flower, but without any pollinating friends around, these would-be fruits soon wither and fall. The tomato plant just stands there on my balcony, mocking me every time I come back from the supermarket with store-bought tomatoes. Thankfully, it’s a different story at the collective garden. Note that it’s a collective, not a community garden. Everyone shares a common garden, as opposed to each person owning a small plot. There, our tomato plants behave, producing plump tomatoes bigger than your fist. And we have other things too, from cucumbers, camomile, cabbage and carrots, to basil, beans and beets. Enough beets to even make Dwight Schrute proud. We have parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, and enough herbs to make 3 more Simon & Garfunkel songs.

The best part is that the garden is located inside Montreal’s Botanical Garden. We work surrounded by vibrant flowers while the song sparrows, catbirds and goldfinches keep us company. Even foxes come visit from time to time. They also eat from thyme to thyme. It’s a wonderful, lush paradise that I share with happy people.

There's something intrinsically beautiful and photogenic about gardens. I don't know what it is. Sweaty gardeners full of soil? I'm not sure. But just looking at colourful gardening pictures gives me the same fuzzy feeling that I get when actually gardening. Claudia and I have this secret fantasy of moving away from the city and starting our little farm. We'd have cats, lots of veggies, and never any pests. I'd have a little woodworking and leatherworking workshop in the back. And somehow I'd find a way to still photograph people. We could make a farm-studio thing where I'd do farmer photoshoots. That's a thing right?

If farmer photoshoots don't sound like your cup of tea, check out the links below where you might find some photography that's a bit more to your liking.

Thanks for reading! Remember you can always contact me if you want to discuss anything.

The Circle of Death

Live long enough in Panama City and you’ll inevitably face the Circle of Death. This isn’t your regular highway interchange - it’s the pulsing heart of the city, a demonic network of arteries linking the Panama Canal locks to the Causeway, the Ancon Hill to the Terminal, the Centennial Bridge to downtown Panama City. Strategically placed on an unavoidable path, the Circle of Death lures many, sometimes multiple times a day. Allow me to describe this fiendish creation in a little more depth. It pretends to be a harmless traffic junction. With the promise of reducing travel time, it seduces all roads, from proud palm-boasting boulevards, to innocent little streets. Even the most resolute highways cannot resist the temptation. The Circle of Death invites everyone in, and therein lies the problem. As you enter The Circle and start turning, your 4-lanes meet others. All seems fine until you’re ambushed by 2 new lanes, and just as suddenly you encounter a fork ahead. Vehicles frantically attempt to escape the Circle, swerve right, weaving through those who must go in deeper.

As you brave on, the crescendo of car horns indicates that you are near the climax. You’ve reached The Turn, and you’re now fully committed to the Circle of Death. If you’re in a bus, this is the moment where you might feel suspended in mid-air; the bus spins, stands at a 45 degree angle on two wheels. At this very moment, new tourists in the bus are immediately given away - not by their sun burns, flip flops, “Panama” hats (which are neither made, nor really worn by Panamanians), loud voices, travel guides, sunglasses, shorts, backpacks or their pronunciation of the country they’re in (Panamaaahhww), but by their inevitable fall.

During The Turn, you dare to peek outside the window, looking up to the sun for hope. Unfortunately, you only encounter a giant “INFLAMABLE - PELIGROSO” stamped on a mammoth tank truck zooming past you. You think, perhaps, to look ahead for the light at the end of the tunnel. Oh but do not be so naive darling, you will only see another bus, just millimeters away from yours. You know that a single bump, even a gentle tap, on any 2 vehicles in The Circle will unleash a whirlwind of fury. So you despair. You close your eyes and wait. The Circle of Death has surely won. It will consume its prey shortly.

At this point I must remind you that this is Panama. Turn signals are futile. Checking blind spots is somewhat of a foreign concept. The road is not shared between happy Honda Civics and Toyota Prii; it is dominated by battered taxis, proudly displaying their battle scars. And I’m not talking about dings and dents or nicks and notches. I’m talking about missing bumpers, fissured windshields, duct-taped windows, hanging side-mirrors, and ravaged doors. I’ve even seen a few of these taxis with windshield stickers announcing: “DIOS CUIDA DE MÍ” (GOD CARES FOR ME). Remember that whatever fear you have of these yellow kamikazes will be eclipsed when compared to your terror of the mighty Diablos Rojos.

So you open your eyes slowly. You see the dazed tourists, recovering from their fall. You look around in the bus and observe the locals, unfazed. You realize you’ve made it. A few on the side of the bend did not. Some cars, according to legend, are still going around the Circle of Death, unable to escape even after 50 years. But somehow you are here and still breathing. You can now let out a sigh of relief, perhaps even thank your driver, luck, or whichever deity for having spared your life today.

If you hike up Ancon Hill, where a giant Panama flag proudly waves in the wind, a viewpoint looks down on the Circle of Death. From above and at a distance, it seems deceptively innocent. But you know better. You stand there and watch artificial selection in action. The Circle of Death slowly weeds out those who cannot handle Panamanian roads. Perhaps it is a deliberate invention and a necessary evil after all. But The Circle of Death is not something Elton John will be singing about any time soon.

As I muster up courage for my next encounter, I think of Syrio Florel's words, which I'll recite in the face of the Circle of Death.

“What do we say to the god of death? Not today.”

Portrait of a Snake, Turtle & Crocodile

Weird title, you're thinking. Keep reading. In the NEO program with me are other research nomads who regularly jump back and forth between Montreal and Panama. Some chase after butterflies in the rainforest, others dig up snails on the beach, and I hop river to river in search of my fish. Not everyone, however, is here for Panama’s wildlife.

For the past year, my friend Divya has been studying the transformation of culture and land use in a small indigenous Emberá community called Piriatí. Aside from conducting interviews and organizing cultural activities, she built friendships and has lived there long enough to essentially become adopted by the community.

When one of her friends from the community turned 30, we organized a quick portrait session as a gift. In the pictures, you'll see Raquel, the birthday girl, along with her friends Mara and Malala, all wearing the typical brightly patterned skirts that Emberá women wear (parumas). You'll see the jewelry made of beads and silver coins, some of them dating back to the 1800s. And of course, you'll see the body paint (jagua). In the picture below, the 3 jagua patterns each represent an animal: a snake, turtle and crocodile.

We received thanks in the currency of jagua tattoos. With a thin reed in her dextrous hand, Mara delicately traced out the patterns on our arms, occasionally dipping the reed in the black-blue jagua. This ink, extracted from boiled Genipa americana seeds, remains on the skin for a few weeks until the surface layer of the skin is naturally exfoliated away. To keep mine as long as possible, I've acquired an unhealthy paranoia that keeps anything from touching my left forearm. Still looks great!

Although it only took Mara a few minutes to trace ours, more intricate and elaborate patterns sometimes require several hours, an exercise in patience for both artist and canvas. When you take into account that many people in the community become fully painted for certain celebrations, you can imagine how laborious the process becomes.

Now let's switch gears and talk photography. If you've read the last post, you know that I don't have too much equipment with me currently. All pictures you saw here were taken with the 50mm 1.4G AF-S. I love this focal length for portrait photography. It's wide enough so you can make environmental portraits, but you can also go in tight for headshots Don't be misguided; the 100$ 50mm 1.8 AF-D would have done the job just as well.

Because our shooting location was limited to just a small house and its hectic backyard, I spent my first 10 minutes looking for potential backdrops. It's an active process, more than just walking around. It's finding good light, changing your point of view, identifying which angles remove undesirable elements of the background from the frame, seeing objects not as subjects, but rather as lines, shapes and colours. A common mistake when looking for backdrops is trying to find one that looks attractive as a subject on its own. One common example that pops into mind are portraits in front of city skylines. That skyline may look great as a subject, but not necessarily as a backdrop in a photograph. An unsightly wall garnished with dog pee stains coated with an uneven paint job because there wasn't much paint left and it's on the side of the garden where no one goes anyway because of the creepy neighbour, on the other hand, may just be the perfect backdrop you're looking for. As a subject? No way. But set at a good distance away, blended into a uniform blur that helps the person pop out? Maybe.

Let's recap. You want to shoot a portrait.

Find a spot with good light. (I realize that this step sounds more simple than it is. I could cover this in a future post.)

Imagine the subject standing there and find the best shooting angle to optimize the background, visualizing it not as a subject, but how it would look once the camera focuses on the subject in front.

With practice it'll become intuitive.

Camera Gear for Travel

Picture this. It’s close to 2AM. It’s quiet. Claudia went to bed a while ago already. I’m sitting at the dining table, papers and notebooks all over the place. I scribble something down and almost immediately cross it off. I’m obviously distressed, in agony even. I should go to bed. But I can’t. At least not yet. Not until I figure this out. What on earth is keeping me up? Do I have to hand in something for work tomorrow morning? Did I miss an important deadline? Nope. I just can’t decide what camera gear to pack for my next trip. A few weeks away. Ohhh but if you could only understand the anguish I feel. I want to bring everything, but I can’t. Do I leave my telephoto lens behind and say byebye to the amazing wildlife I’ll be seeing? Or do I bring it and compromise on the beach sunsets and awesome waterfall shots? The joys of travel photography. Analysis paralysis. Maybe I should just stay in Montreal.

If you saw what was going through my head, you’d find it comical, really. Every possible scenario, played over and over. As if life depended on it. What if, while hiking through the big trees of the rainforest, I spot this bug when suddenly a bird flies by?! I would need a wide-angle, macro and telephoto lens! MINIMUM! Bringing these 5 lenses should do it. But hey a flash isn’t that heavy let’s throw that in there. And you know, a light modifier and a few wireless triggers. And a reflector. And my tripod isn’t THAT heavy. Tadaaa! Suddenly I’m flirting with excess baggage fees at the airport. You should’ve seen how ridiculous I looked at the airport. An overpacked mule I was.

I used to be like that. I think most photographers are like that at some point. Thankfully, I’ve cut down on camera gear tremendously in every trip since. This time I only brought a 50 and a 20. And I almost exclusively use the 50. Free as a bird. In the end it really comes down to what you want to capture. I left behind all those “just in case” lenses. I want to focus solely on documenting my research process and the people I meet. The two small primes will do the job. Don’t worry about the shots you could have gotten, and don’t stay fixated on the traditional roles of each lens. Camera manufacturers often market each lens as if it’s good for one thing only. Wide-angle for landscapes, telephoto for sports and wildlife, blablabla. In the hope of showing you how a single focal length can capture diverse subjects, all the images in this post were shot with the 50. I encourage you to limit the gear your pack for travel. You’ll worry less and enjoy more.

OK maybe this last one requires a bit of explanation. Read the story here.

P.S. I have to admit that lately, I’ve been thinking of getting a more compact camera for travel photography - one that I’d never hesitate bringing with me. Maybe it’s time to venture into the world of mirrorless cameras soon…