He Writes Equally Well
Monday, February 10, 2020
Many years ago I read in Esquire Magazine that the way to a beautiful model’s heart was to tell her how intelligent she is.
In this 21st century age of narcissism people put “fixed” photographs in social media, and, especially those women of a certain age are barraged by “ you still look good” comments. If someone told me, “ Alex you are still a good photographer,” I would punch them in the nose for lack of an automatic.
But in that other century I felt very much like a model and I wanted to be praised and told what a great photographer I was. There was a lot of competition in the magazine business here in Vancouver so my doubts were constant. Luckily I was not a fashion photographer who in a mere few months would be old hat to be replaced by the next Vogue wonder.
All this changed, the idea that I did one thing (photography) well, when the Malvinas War began in April 1982. I was told (ordered) by Vancouver Magazine Editor Mac (Malcolm) Parry to write something. I chose to write about my involvement in a coup during my stint in the Argentine Navy as a conscript in 1965/66. At the time I was helped by a couple of writer friends, then freelancer John Lekich and associate Vancouver Magazine Editor Les Wiseman. The story became a cover and I appeared on it courtesy of a snap (a good snap) by Mac Parry. Parry, of course is a good editor, writer, saxophone player and photographer.
Having my first written piece become a cover story gave my photography a distraction. In later years I wrote for the Vancouver Sun, a garden column for Western Living, the Georgia Straight and the odd magazine abroad.
In January 2006 I had my web page designed by the local firm Skunkworks. They attached to it a custom designed Blogger blog. Since that January I have written until today and including this one, 4971 blogs.
But like that beautiful model from Esquire, I don’t want to be told how beautiful I am. I want to be told that I write well. That has not been the case. My now departed friend Mark Budgen told me I was badly in need of an editor. I am a bit careless so I do have typos.
Except for a a very few writer friends I am never praised for my writing. That changed today!
But today I can look at myself in a mirror and smile. Why? Looking for previous blogs I may have written about the forthcoming Valentine’s Day I found a in Google a Town Talk column by Malcolm Parry who writes for the Vancouver Sun dated February 02, 2015 this citation:
THE SKINNY: With the downtown Sears store redevelopment raising area rents, the Robson-at-Howe Chapters bookstore will relocate. So might Argentina-born photographer Alex Waterhouse Hayward had he not vamoosed already. Large, blind-free windows once flooded his neighbouring second-floor studio with light reflected from Sears’ blank wall across Robson Street. Thus lit and shielded from prying eyes, it was perfect for photographing nudes. Now, though, hundreds of windows punctuating the revamping department store will let Nordstrom shoppers and Microsoft staffers see everything below. The photographer’s blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com contains some reminders of his work there. More importantly, it is a terrific record of the many cultural, corporate, entertainment and institutional characters he has portrayed and of whom he writes equally well.
Originally published at http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com.
