Edna & M’s Versions of Yours Truly
I often tell people that as a photographer I feel comfortable behind the camera but also comfortable facing one. The reason is that when I am photographed I don’t have to worry about posing someone or how to light them. I stiffly pose and usually look like a stiff with eyes open.
I treasure the snapshot that the Acapulco Chief of the Federal Police took of me in the 80s. I posed by a tree on which hanging from a limb was an AK-47 and my Nikon FM-2 with a huge 200 mm lens. What made the snap more special is my Lupo the Butcher T-shirt.
But there are two illustrations of me taken by two beautiful women. One dates back to 1966 and the other to 1978.
The former was an illustration by Irish/Argentine Edan Gahan. When I entered the Argentine Navy as a conscript the folks realized that my English could be used as an asset. I was assigned as aide and translator to American US Senior Naval Advisor Captain USN Onofrio Salvia. I was asked if I could type. Typing was the only course I failed in high school. I did not know then that I was a dyslexic.
So I was assigned a secretary to type all my translations. She was Edna Gahan whom obviously saw me as someone very different from the image that I saw of myself.
The other illustration was taken by M whom I photographed on Wreck Beach using the then usual Kodachrome and Kodak B+W Infrared Film.
M and others at the beach were my first shots of the undraped female and led me to perfect lighting techniques and approaches which I have used to the present.
Originally published at blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com.
