PPPInc. going strong two years later!

It has been awhile since I last posted but I'm happy to say that things are going great and PPPInc. (or P3 as friends fondly refer to me) is progressing very well.

Friends and colleagues in the newspaper industry have been feeling the sting of the decline of advertising, readership, and revenue, but thankfully there continues to be a demand for great photography in the editorial world, and elsewhere.

While I continue to do assignments for my editorial clients, I have been steadily increasing the client list for PPPInc. with valued companies in the corporate and commercial sectors. I have embraced this new work and am finding it a wonderful environment with new challenges and many opportunities to showcase photography and grow my business.

During the past year my work has ranged from writing a 5,500 word essay to accompany my images from a self-assignment in Natuashish, Labrador to working on a book of corporate location portraits.

I was very pleased to see my story, Hunting Demons in Labrador, given five pages in The Globe and Mail, and a wealth of space and promotion on-line.

Sharing such a wonderful experience with the people of Natuashish was a privilege I will never forget and it was an honour to be able to draw some attention back to the many challenges faced by the people who populate Canada's remote northern regions with a story that is both chilling and to a small degree, encouraging. My thoughts still go daily to the people I've met I'm my travels and wish them  continued success in their struggle to make their communities happy and healthy places for families to grow and prosper.

155th Queen's Plate - My 1st

You would think that after working in Toronto for two of the largest newspapers in Canada for a quarter of a century that I might have at least covered Canada's largest stakes race - the Queen's Plate - at least once. Well, I had never done so.

But that all changed yesterday, and it was a fantastic experience!

I joined a team of about eight photographers and editors, from various backgrounds to cover the race and the festivities surrounding it for Michael Burns. Michael and his father have been the track photographers in Toronto for decades. It was an opportunity I was very pleased to have, but covering an entire day of racing and all of its pageantry, demands many hours of work.

Hats of every kind adorned many of the racing fans who attended the 155th running of the Queen's Plate in Toronto, Ont. on July 6, 2014. (Photos by Peter Power)

The most colourful aspect of the day has to be the Hats and Horseshoes party that lives up to its name, and then some. There were hats of all kinds; most quite striking and beautiful, and some, just, well, not so much. But they were interesting all the same.

The race day culminated with the 155th running of this historic race. It's certainly an exciting couple of minutes, but everything visual depends on the horses, and the jockeys. Photographers, including myself, had remote cameras set up at various places around the track, some that provided good results, and some that did not. The winner, started in the back of the pack, so my remote stuff from the inside of turn one didn't even show him. But I was able to shoot the first turn from the outside and then get back to the finish in time to photograph Lexie Lou, ridden by jockey Patrick Husbands, cross the line first and celebrate.

Jockey Patrick Husbands reaches forward to rub the head Lexie Lou after crossing the finish line to win the 155th running of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario on July 6, 2014.(Photo by Peter Power)

Like many sporting events, everything was very civilized until the big race. Then HBL - or hell breaks loose as Mike described it. But it was great to be in the mix, making pictures at a great, and historic Canadian event. I'm looking forward more horse racing, and certainly this event, in the future.

World Pride 2014

This week Toronto hosted World Pride 2014 and there were plenty of events for participants to be educated, share their ideas, make their voice heard, and simply enjoy themselves. The gay village in Toronto, and the neighbouring streets, were filled with people celebrating throughout the week. I must say, that I have always enjoyed covering Pride week in Toronto. It is a very joyous event that rarely has a downside.

Two men walk over one of the Pride flag painted sidewalks in Toronto during World Pride celebrations on June 21, 2014. World Pride activities continue in Toronto, Ontario until the parade on Sunday, June 29th.

The only downside for me this year was the application process for getting accreditation. There was nothing unduly challenging about it in itself, but it was another reminder to me of the challenges of getting accreditation as an independent photojournalist. I am finding this process very difficult to accept on a regular basis, and I'm sure it will continue to be a regular issue in the coming years.

In any case, I was successful in getting a media credential for Pride events, and separately I was able to access the Grand Pride Wedding that took place at Casa Loma, sponsored by the Liberty Entertainment Group and The City of Toronto. This was a free event to same-sex couples who wanted to be married, and on that beautiful sunny day 110 couples either renewed their vows or were married. The jury is still out but organizers say this was a record-setting event. Visually this wasn't all that photographers had hoped for thanks to the huge clear plastic tent that was erected in case of bad weather, but we all endured the intense heat, and puddles of sweat to make images of the proud newlyweds.

Today I am preparing to cover the last of the Pride events this week - the Pride Parade - which will shut down much of Toronto's core, and make the streets into a stage for hundreds of thousands of celebrants to express themselves and cap off their incredible week. It should prove to be interesting, especially if the organizers are successful in keeping journalists off the parade route. What a ridiculous idea! They are siting huge crowds and security concerns as a reason. Obviously they've never looked carefully at how the media covers other huge events around the Globe.

In the meantime, I have posted some images from the Grand Wedding on my website.

Friday 13th Port Dover 2014

So I spent my yesterday making pictures at the 57th Friday13th biker rally in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada. This is the only Friday 13th in 2014 so I wanted to to take advantage. This event is never disappointing visually, although logistically it can be hell getting into an out of the small Lake Erie town when the population swells to well over 100,000 people. I met some great people and was constantly intrigued by the variety of folk who attend this event. If you've never attended I suggest you check your calendar and try to attend the next one.

I'm going to try something new and post the bulk images from the day here instead of on my website. We'll see how that goes.

Incorporated!

Peter Power Photography Inc. is now a registered corporation! 

Now all I have to do is start earning a living with it. Well, not yet, but very soon. And thanks to a wealth of colleagues, friends and family who have been incredibly supportive through this transition I am feeling very confident about the future....most days.

There seems to be a never-ending list of minutia that needs to be dealt with before my business is up and running, and it's not easy getting things done while still working my scheduled shifts at the paper, waiting for that final day. April 2, 2014 will be my last official day as a staff photographer by the way. The fact that it's also the anniversary of my dad's passing doesn't help either. I'm sure it will be an emotional day.

But I'm discovering there's plenty of time to get things done as long as I whittle away at it in a steady, organized fashion. Plenty of time if I'm content to be up and running for April 3rd, but the problem is that in my head at least I've already moved on from being a staff photographer and I'm already running my business. Every day I wake up thinking I need to have my affairs in order TODAY.  I need to be getting assignments TODAY. I need to be invoicing people and depositing cheques TODAY. But then common sense prevails and I relax enough to deal with the challenges directly before me at a given time. This new phase of my career will evolve but I need to take it one step at a time, and allow time for everything else in my life. And that still includes making images for a newspaper, as it always has.

The thing about most people I know in this industry is this; We love what we do, and we take great pride in doing it exceptionally well. This includes photographers, writers, editors,....everyone! Regardless of work environment, politics, circumstance I know very few people who would ever "mail it in." Of course, employers know this, and count on it on a daily basis. 

But I don't just work out of personal pride, or professionalism, or because somebody expects it of me, or because my name might appear with an image, or a video. The most important reason I work hard to make the best images possible is because I owe it to the subjects of my images.

Whether its a simple portrait or a sensitive documentary story we owe our best to everyone we focus our lenses upon.

Pride, professionalism, respect, passion, patience, commitment, consistency, innovation, dedication, determination, duty, dependability, flexibility, compassion, sensitivity, honour, honesty, and humour are all things that I have tried to live by and base my career approach upon. I have always done the best possible job for everyone involved and this has always served me well.

So now, as I transition from being a staff photographer to working independently I have no intention of changing the way I work and the way I approach my life.

Peter Power Photography Inc. is my company, but my company is me. Everyone I know, meet, photograph or do business with will continue to get the absolute best I can offer, and they deserve nothing less. In this I will not compromise.

My Bittersweet Blue Period

This past couple of weeks has been like riding a roller coaster from hell.

It all began with planning meetings for The Globe and Mail's recent project on the North, and the excitement of being involved with something so large, and with so many resources being poured into it.

(Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

Smoke from oil stoves heating temporary housing tents for workers at the Baffinland Iron Ore mine site at Mary River, Baffin Island, Nunavut. 

Then the proverbial shit hit the fan, and news came that three of the four staff photographers in Toronto would be getting layoff notices on Feb. 5th. Fawk!

There was no math to be done. No bumping. No uncomfortable union shit. Myself and two talented colleagues had essentially been shown the door. Another friend who has been working as a part-time photo editor is sadly gone as well, along with about 30 others. It was a sad, sad day.

Its a hard pill to swallow on the best of days, but to say it wasn't somehow expected would be a lie. I simply didn't think it would happen quite the way it did, and I didn't expect our department to be hit so hard. There will remain only two staff photographers for Canada's National Newspaper; one in Toronto and one in Vancouver.

"Oh well!" necessarily became my motto for the rest of the week.  There were only a few days left until publication of what would essentially be my last hurrah as a staffer at The Globe and Mail. I have been determined to accept the layoff for what it is and to maintain a positive outlook on the future. Thoughts beyond the coming days needed to be kept in the back of my mind, and if they did creep forward I didn't want them to compromise the work I still needed to do with a great team to make The North project as good as we possibly could.

(Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

Walrus hunter Nuna Parr's footwear is made from sealskin, which when sewn with traditional methods is waterproof.

I spent 25 days in November and December north of The Arctic Circle with Ian Brown. (Ian is @BrownoftheGlobe on Twitter) This was my second trip to document life in Canada's North and it was a spectacular professional and personal experience. [I wrote about my first northern assignment here.] Not only is Ian one of Canada's best writers, but he's a funny, thoughtful, and gregarious travel partner. We had a blast! [We last paired up while working on The Boy in the Moon]

Everyone who touched this work gave a fantastic effort, and it will forever stand out in my memory as one of those assignments that was done right from its inception through to publication. In the office I spent a huge amount of time with our web team and our newspaper layout designers. The new web publishing tool rolled out for  The Magnetic North on the web is brilliant thanks to them, and the paper was no less so impressive. If you haven't opened this link on a computer with a large screen I suggest you do so. It is a model we are all very proud of.

We also elected to return to larger photography galleries for this series and two from my work were published in similar formats. A Kaleidoscopic Portrait of the North and Twilight in Canada's North are the two titles of these galleries. I've been joking that this has been the "blue period" of my career. The incredibly unique, and very cool blue light in the north is half of that equation. The rest you can figure out I'm sure.

(Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

A young boy hides from the biting cold while his mother walks backward to protect her own face in Igloolik, Nunavut. 

In addition to the galleries there are also a number of videos that can be found here. These include a small compilation of the my first ever attempts at time-lapse photography. Feedback on the entire series has been extremely positive, and through it all I have received an incredible amount of moral support from friends and colleagues in Toronto, across Canada and throughout the globe. (That's the big blue ball in space I'm referring to, not the newspaper) For this experience I am forever grateful, and humbled by the generosity shown me in so many ways.

I doubt this will be the last of my work published in The Globe and Mail, but my career is about to take a dramatic turn. I am excited about the possibilities that lay before me and while I am determined to continue working on stories that matter to me, and to continue to work as a photojournalist, I will also be seeking out new challenges with photography, video and multimedia.

Journalism has always been my first love, and the reason I became a photojournalist. This will never change. But our evolving world has provided people in our profession with a wealth of opportunities in many, many areas and I would be a fool not to be excited about new challenges, new adventures, new techniques, and a new and varied group of people to work with.

Beginning in April I will be making images for which I will be the first copyright holder for the first time in my career. That is very exciting to me.

And so, I was laid off one week and published insanely well the next. Bittersweet indeed! But the sky is the limit from here on. Bring on the next 25 years!

Lac-Mégantic, Que

On July 8, 2013 I drove 875km from my home to join Globe and Mail staffer Moe Doiron and a small team of reporters in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. Until Saturday I had not heard of this picturesque tourist destination on the edge of Quebec's Eastern Townships. But now, for me, and for countless others, this otherwise quiet town of about 6000 residents, will forever have a permanent place in our psyche.

In the early hours of Saturday morning a run-away train hauling 72 tankers filled with light crude brought hell-on-earth to the town's historic downtown. Media from across the country flooded to the small town to cover this story. The track configuration will certainly be a consideration in the investigation, as are the events that lead the rolling time-bomb to begin rolling down the steady grade from where it was parked in Nantes, about 20km away. The momentum alone of this mass of steel derailing in an urban centre is frightening enough, but the explosions, inferno, and a flowing river of fire toward the lake meant that people nearby never stood a chance. Officials estimate that as many as 50 people may have lost their lives, but the recovery process will be painstaking and lengthy. Many more residents were displaced for several days as the fire was brought under control, and the "crime scene" secured. Most were able to return to their homes by the end of the week, but many, still in temporary housing, will likely not return to their homes, if they are still standing, for weeks, or months.

A house still stands adjacent to the destruction in downtown Lac-Mégantic, PQ on July 11, 2013.(Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

For those whose homes are inside the screened steel fencing erected by the authorities it will be some time before they experience the emotional return to home and re-uniting with neighbours that we witnessed on the 11th. For many their homes are tantalizingly close but unreachable; peeking almost mockingly at them over the menacing black fencing.

This lengthy barrier, purported by authorities to be "protecting a crime scene," has screening that denies passers-by a view to the carnage beyond. On the sides where public, and media access, is denied, there is no black screening. But the Lac-Mégantic's residents are curious, as are the media, and now, there are throngs of tourists who have been flocking to the small town to catch a glimpse of their own of this disaster. For the media, who have had limited access to the site, the curious onlookers have themselves become a story.

Someone has elected to decorate the screened fencing in Lac-Mégantic, PQ on July 13, 2013.(Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

What hasn't become a story, and should at some point, is the fact that authorities in Lac-Mégantic have repeatedly done everything they can to inhibit the media, and the public, from witnessing the work being done beyond the fencing under the guise of "protecting the evidence." Photographers especially have been told repeatedly that "it is illegal to photograph a crime scene." Nonsense. Or, "it is illegal to photograph a body." Nonsense. It even became ridiculous to the point that photographers were denied the ability to approach residents to ask to use their balconies to secure a view.

The scope of this disaster is yet to be fully understood and absorbed by everyone who has been touched by it. The pain felt in Lac-Mégantic, and the healing that will take place over many years is certainly what is most important. In its scope and its impact, this disaster is unprecedented in Canada.

A small hand-made cross placed by local Helene Drapers sits at the front of St. Agnes Church in Lac-Mégantic, PQ on on July 13, 2013.(Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

What is not unprecedented is the methods used by authorities to stymie the efforts of a free media, in a democratic country, to gather information. Authorities in Lac-Mégantic have chosen to police morality rather than the law. They have taken it upon themselves to decide what images are gathered from the scene, and are attempting to decide for the media what we can or cannot publish in good conscience. This is simply wrong, and outside of their mandate.

Their concerns, that some media will publish something that is hurtful, or insensitive to the community are not without precedent either. But in my experience most media organizations historically err on the side of caution especially when it comes to image use. The instances where an organization consciously or inadvertently publicizes disturbing material are few, and is not the responsibility of the emergency services to control.

At one point, we the media were even asked, by a PR official, not to take images of people working on the site. What a ridiculous request to make.

What is almost as upsetting is the way every media outlet allowed this to continue without any real challenge. I know of only one photographer, perhaps a little motivated by a late arrival and the need to generate some fresh images, who challenged the top PR man, their policy, and their lack of authority to enforce it. Without the support of the mass of media present, which should have existed, this attempt was doomed to fail, as it did.

Police and forensic team members take a break in the shade of a home inside the red zone in Lac-Mégantic, PQ on July 14, 2013.(Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

It has not been lost on the media that much of the work being done inside the perimeter borders on the heroic. Many workers have fallen ill on the site. Long hours and exhaustion in the extreme heat have been a constant concern. Over time the horrible job many workers must endure is sure to take an emotional toll. But this is indeed part of the story, and should be told, in words, and in images. Asking residents to keep us off of their roofs, or suggesting that their insurance wouldn't cover an injury to a media person is, again, untrue, and beyond the mandate of authorities.

In a community that is coming together for strength, two women smile and clasp arms following a moment of silence at noon in Lac-Mégantic, PQ on July 13, 2013.(Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

Lac-Mégantic has felt this tragedy at its core. Many of us have witnessed the community coming together and showing great strength, and support. Compassionate acts of condolence have filled the memorial inside Sainte Agnes Church from near and far. I know that I have been touched by the kindness of the people I met on this assignment, and the strength this community showed despite such a great loss.

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For more images from Lac-Mégantic, go to my personal website or The Globe and Mail.

Freedom of the Press

From Canada's Constitution Act of 1982 the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

And according to section 2(b) of the Charter this includes freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is actually quite young. It was originally signed by Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau in 1982, after several drafts and revisions to the original 1980 document.

It is important to note that these rights are not absolute. According to The Centre for Constitutional Studies, all rights listed in the Charter may be subject to limits where there are competing interests.There are two main components in their analysis of these limits. The first is that all limits must be “prescribed by law” and the second is that the limits must be “reasonable and demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”

Section 2(b) which has been the subject of a large amount of case law is considered by many to be the most significant of the Charter rights in influencing Canadian society. Justice Peter Cory, who served with the Supreme Court of Canada from 1989-1999, once said "it is difficult to imagine a guaranteed right more important to a democratic society."

IMHO it is difficult to imagine a guaranteed right more important to a democratic society than 

freedom of the press.

While this is all very heady stuff it is important to understand that freedom of the press is not some catch phrase snatched from the movies. Freedom of the press is an absolute necessity if we are to hold governments and agencies accountable, inform and entertain our communities, expose inequity and injustice in all forms, document events for the historical record, and inspire thought and creativity for the betterment of society.

Freedom of the press?

In the twenty-four years that I have been working as a staff photographer in Canada I have witnessed the escalation of a troubling trend by people of authority to limit and/or impede the work of legitimate journalists and photojournalists with little or no legal justification.

There was a time when police tape was used at crime or accident scenes to control crowds, allow emergency responders space to do their jobs, and maintain public safety. These are all legitimate reasons for controlling a perimeter. However, many journalists you ask today will tell you that police lines(to use a general term not limited to police), have steadily moved further and further away from the scenes they are meant to protect. Many emergency services come under the scrutiny of media during the execution of their duties. It is no small wonder that over time authorities have discovered that by limiting media's access they are also able to avoid scrutiny of their own roles.

The dreaded yellow tape that marks off areas where emergency personnel are working is often used to define the point that media cannot cross. It is quite common for police to control media in this way while citizens stand, or walk well within the limits of the yellow tape. It begs the question as to which of reasons for placing yellow tape is being addressed. While civilians are free to wander within police lines then certainly the incident scene is not being protected, nor is public safety. In addition, most media understand all too well how to work in close proximity to emergency personnel without getting in the way. I'm not sure that most civilians can say the same.

When a neighbourhood barbecue turned violent and several people were shot in Toronto last year, there were hundreds of yards of police tape strung throughout the neighbourhood. Media did what they could to do their jobs from outside of the taped area, while some residents wandered around inside the tape within feet of where cones marked evidence found by investigators. When some media tried to access a part of the street (outside the tape) from which it was possible to view an area where police were visible conducting their investigating of one of the fatalities, officers quickly asked them to move away, and the tape was moved to prevent the effort from being repeated. Why would they do this?

It is no secret that many in society do not understand how or why we do our jobs as visual journalists, and it is often painfully obvious that many police officers and other emergency personnel do not approve of what we do. This is irrelevant when it comes to our rights as media representatives performing a legitimate role within the confines of the law. But it is the reason, this and self-preservation, that people of authority use their authority, lawful or not, to make it harder for us to work.

Only law can limit a Charter right. A police officer cannot limit a Charter right on his or her own initiative without any authority in law. Nobody can limit the rights of the media simply because they don't like or agree with what we are doing or how we are doing it. But police are not stupid by any means and it is this manipulation of the law that they use with great effectiveness.

Take for example the case of Toronto Star reporter Alex Consiglio who was arrested after taking photographs of an injured GO transit officer at Union Station in Toronto. Anne Marie Aikins, media relations manager with Metrolinx, was quoted in the story as saying that news photographers are not allowed to take photos at Union Station. “There are two issues here. If you’re taking pictures in the official capacity of your job (journalist) that’s where there is a liability issue. If people are using their cellphones and taking pictures or even using their cameras to take tourist shots there isn’t that kind of an issue because it’s not in an official capacity,” said Aikins.

If I'm understanding correctly then, the problem isn't the act of taking photos, but rather the idea that something unapproved by GO might end up in a media publication. So in practical terms, it's okay to take photos, unless you're an actual accredited, working journalist.

The moments that followed Consiglio being asked to stop taking photos are indicative of a tactic quite common with police. While we may not agree with an officer's reasons for asking us to move back from an area, and while the request may actually be difficult to justify legally, the bottom line is that once you disobey that request you are providing police with the opportunity to arrest you, which is pretty much what happened with Consiglio. In fact Consiglio says he did move away when directed to do so, but apparently didn't quite remove himself completely from the property.

It is very common today for police, security personnel, etc. to tell unwitting members of the public, and the media that they cannot take photos. The reality is that there is absolutely no law against taking photographs in Canada. There are trespass laws, and you can be quite lawfully asked to leave a property, but the act of making pictures is not illegal. You know you've struck a nerve when a police officer approaches you and tells you to move away because "you've taken enough pictures." It is neither their right, nor their place to determine when you may or may not photograph or videotape a scene. Their own personal sensibilities, fears or judgments are irrelevant to the situation and the rule of law. Wether lawful or not, the next step is that the officer will ask you to move back. At this point they are taking a perfectly lawful situation and placing you at the mercy of the law as they interpret it. If you resist at this point, media or not, you may be arrested. It is wrong, it likely won't stick in court, but it certainly solves the problem for the police officer at that moment.

Another situation we come up against regularly in Toronto is access to TTC property. The Toronto Transit Commission is paid for by the taxpayers of Toronto, is run by the government body in Toronto, and is largely a public space. Individuals take photographs and video regularly on TTC property, yet the TTC insists that the media need permission to work on TTC property. There is no legal justification that I have been able to find for this, yet Toronto's media for the most part tolerates it.

At Toronto City Hall I was recently told I could not take photographs from the public seating area. This, despite the fact that the area was mostly empty. The security guard, and the civil servant with him, were of the opinion that I needed to work from the media designated area.  The security guard actually admitted to me that if I was a member of the public I would be allowed to continue photographing from the public area, but because I was with the media I had to move. The thinking is so obtuse that I can hardly believe it happened to this day. It is convenient that an area is set aside for media to work in, but it is exactly that. It is not intended to be a place to sequester the media.

Situations like these have become all too common. Police tape and bogus rules have become a way to control media access, and media are increasingly being targeted. In a 2010 story by Lise Lareau, for the Canadian Media Guild she describes several cases of media carrying formal G20 media accreditation who were kept from doing their jobs, several of whom were beaten, arrested, and detained. What appears to be happening is that the messengers are being targeted by authorities rather than authorities concentrating on the events that are being covered.

In our small photographic community here in Canada we were all shocked at the 2010 G20 events, but personally I was even more dismayed that more was not done by media outlets, either individually, or collectively, to object to the actions by authorities. At the time the CAJ issued a statement to police, but little more was done publicly by other organizations beyond statements. In their release, the CAJ wrote, 

“This kind of behaviour by police toward the media is not acceptable in a democracy like Canada,” said Mary Agnes Welch, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists. “Police must understand that, like them, journalists have a job to do in the public interest. Lumping us in with protesters or blocking us from covering events is not consistent with the democratic principles that police are sworn to uphold. The CAJ has received word from professional journalists who say they have been threatened with arrest if they did not leave an area where they were covering peaceful protest, witnessed officers striking journalists and seen colleagues arrested."

I'm of the opinion that it doesn't matter what the nature of the protests were; peaceful or not. Media were doing their job, and were singled out because they had eyes on a scene that were unwelcome at the time. Police asked them to leave, and the minute they refused they became vulnerable to arrest. The post G20 fallout was minor, but was the most appropriate time in recent history for Canadian media to move en masse to change this rising tide of media crippling.

It has become increasingly obvious that there are those in positions of authority that have adopted a warped sense of the democratic principals that they have been sworn to uphold. We all take great pride in reporting and documenting with care, and publish our work with great consideration for every subject, victim, and reader.

Upon analysis, these situations and limitations of our rights and freedoms do not stand up to scrutiny. They are not “prescribed by law,” unless the law is loosely applied, and they are not “reasonable and demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”

It is absolutely wrong for law enforcement, as individuals or collectively, to manipulate, or misrepresent the law, to strip Canadian citizens, media or not, of the rights that our lawmakers have guaranteed us in the spirit of a true democracy. This landslide of abuse needs to stop, and it will only stop when organizations, lawmakers, and citizens stand up together and say  "Enough!"

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Birth of a Notion

First off, kudos to the headline writer for this headline, "Amid the poverty of West Africa, the birth of a notion."

These words lead off a Folio centre spread in The Globe and Mail about a new program of free healthcare for expecting mothers and mothers of young children. Geoffrey York, our African Bureau Chief wrote the piece and the images are mine. Designer extraordinaire David Pratt did the layout.

So much of our work in the media involves bringing light to problems and difficulties around the globe. It's critical that we continue to draw attention to areas that need it, but it felt great to be able to help tell a positive story, especially out of Africa, and specifically Sierra Leone, a country that has seen more than its share of suffering.

While there is much to be done in Sierra Leone there is no denying that this dramatic step is a very important one. The program in itself is not without problems, and the long-term sustainability of it in such a poor country will be a question for some time.

In Somalia last September Geoff  and I witnessed a lot of death and suffering. I photographed a 7-year old boy who had just died, and his grieving family. Those are images that I feel need to be made, and stories that need to be told.

But I have to say that being allowed to photograph a woman giving birth to a healthy baby boy, and coming through it herself without issue at Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown was a real privilege, and one that I will never forget.

Ruby Williams, Matron, Princess Christian Maternity Hospital

Likewise I won't ever forget the smile and the generosity of Ruby Williams, the Matron of the Hospital, who took a lot of time during her hectic day to shepherd me around her hospital and patiently waited while I made images. Thank you Ruby.

Geoffrey York's story and links to a photo gallery and audio slideshow can be found at globeandmail.com.

Monrovia: Charles Taylor Found Guilty

Only minutes after the special court at the Hague announced it’s verdict in the five-year trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor on April 26, 2012 a halo appeared around the sun as it hung almost directly above the crowds gathered in downtown Monrovia to listen and watch the news. Immediately people here began to speculate on the meaning of this strange, and rare, atmospheric phenomenon. If people were supportive or not of the former warlord seemed to determine whether they thought God was happy or unhappy with the court’s guilty verdict in the eleven counts against Mr. Taylor for crimes against humanity.

The day before the verdict the inside back page of The Globe and Mail – a coveted glossy paper space usually reserved for international news – featured an advance story by our African bureau chief, Geoffrey York, and two of my photographs. Yesterday we ran a double page spread of stories and images from the streets here as Liberians waited and reacted to the news.

Geoff’s thoughtful planning ensured we were here in Liberia’s capital for the moment that the Charles Taylor’s verdict would be read at the Hague. The piece in yesterday’s paper provided some background to Globe and Mail readers and spoke of the level of support the warlord still has here. There are many here who support Taylor. There are many here who do not.

I sent ten images for my photo editors and editors to choose from for Wednesday’s story, and in the end they chose as their main an image of a young man named Peter Tarr. When he was eleven years old Tarr was captured by Taylor’s forces and was soon carrying a weapon and fighting battles. His story is similar to other child soldiers during that bloody time in that he was later captured by opposing forces and then forced to fight against Taylor. Somehow he survived the war and became a member of President Taylor’s Liberian Army. It was during this time, while fighting some of Taylor’s opponents that he was injured twice; first by a bullet through his upper thigh, and later a gunshot wound to his right arm that required an amputation from just below the shoulder.

Tarr’s story is heartbreaking, but sadly, not uncommon in Liberia. Unemployed and disfigured, Tarr now spends his days, like many of this country’s child soldiers begging on Monrovia’s streets.

Remarkably Tarr has few angry words. He is unhappy that Taylor brought war to an otherwise peaceful nation, and that the years of war affected him, and so many others in such a negative way. And yet he seemed confident that justice would prevail. He was confident that if Taylor was guilty of war crimes he would be found guilty. If he was not, he would be found innocent.

In a country where many people seem to be judging Taylor based on the price of rice during his presidency (it was far cheaper then), this indifference by a grievously damaged young man like Tarr amazes me. Perhaps he is resigned after his ten-year struggle on Monrovia’s dirty streets and knows that neither decision in Taylor's case will change his fate.

Perhaps he is right.  Any damage that Charles Taylor, and men like him, could ever inflict upon Peter Tarr, and thousands like him, was done a long time ago.

But as several people expressed on Thursday, regardless of the verdict, Liberians may now finally be able to put this dark chapter in their lives behind them and move forward. 

[The complete articles and a gallery of images can be found on globeandmail.com]

A Delicate Balance of Respect and Boundaries

(This entry was originally published at globeandmail.com on March 17, 2012. It accompanied stories by Globe and Mail writer Lisa Priest about hospice care in Ontario). The original piece can be found here with links to two image galleries.

The Globe and Mail was granted access to Kensington Hospice to observe care provided to those who come to die and to see how people live out their final days.

Why hospices? End of life care is an important health issue, one that given the aging population, will grow in importance. About 70 per cent of people die in hospital, even though most say they want to die at home. Hospices offer something between those two worlds: they provide a residential, home-like feel with doctors and nurses for those who can't die at home, but for whom a costly hospital bed isn't appropriate, either.

Mostly, they come to accept what we all must: death. Their willingness to allow journalists to document that journey is a gift.

– Lisa Priest

Basia Hoffman hugs Kensington Hospice Social Worker Maxxine Rattner during a visit with her mother, Andree Hoffman, a few short hours before she passed away on Feb. 9, 2012.

There are few phrases more painful than “It is with a heavy heart.”

After the death of a loved one, these words most often mark the earliest stage in the grieving process – an intimate and emotional moment when family and friends are coming to grips with their loss.

For journalists, even though many have heard these words repeated several times throughout their careers, the emotional charge never seems to fade.

These emotions – pain, sadness, confusion, loss – make covering death and dying one of the most challenging assignments for writers and photographers.

The best way for a photojournalist to approach this kind of assignment is to draw on personal experience – to put yourself as much as you can in your subjects' shoes. This means trying to remember what it feels like to touch a loved one for the last time, to have them look upon you for the last time, and to desperately want more. To realize there is no way to fully prepare for that final moment.

For a recent story about hospice care, I found myself drawing on this personal experience, as well as the many stories I've covered in my career, where strangers have granted me the privilege of witnessing some of life's most intimate moments.

These experiences help when trying to approach people and families in the most unobtrusive manner possible.

And this is the point. You cannot, and must not, endeavour to work on stories about one of the most challenging times in anyone's life if your presence will in any way make those moments more difficult.

Before I introduce a camera into any sensitive situation I always try to introduce myself first. Meeting people in person allows me to better understand their situation, but it serves the more important purpose of helping them to understand who I am, my goals and my methods. These meetings might be brief, or may take hours, days or months depending on the subject, but for everyone involved they are critical.

At Kensington Hospice in Toronto my involvement started with a meeting. My goal was to build on the trust earned by my colleague, reporter Lisa Priest, to gain permission to come and go as the story required, and to establish rules so I could work in a manner that fell within their guidelines, and with constant consideration for all of its residents, not just those I was documenting. Lisa had already laid much of the groundwork for me, and so this meeting was very straightforward. The next step was meeting the families involved.

You never simply ask if you can take photographs of someone. To do so is risking immediate refusal. Photographers understand that visual storytelling requires a more sophisticated approach and I have yet to speak to an individual who does not appreciate the difference.

I have never worked on a story of this nature without believing that I can do justice to the story, and that I can do so honestly while preserving the dignity of everyone involved. This is what I try to convey in trying to secure someone's trust to participate in a story.

This is what I concentrated on during my initial conversations with members of two families with loved ones at the hospice. While I would always prefer not to rush into any story, time did not allow a leisurely approach to this one. While Marianne Kupina and her husband, Andrew McCarthy, weren't quite sure what to expect from me, they readily accepted what I proposed in terms of photography. There would be no posed portraits, but only real moments as they arose. Andrew, a handsome man, who, at 55 was dying of cancer, seemed all too aware that time was of the essence. After only a short conversation he simply looked at me, smiled, and said, “Well. Go get your cameras.”

Marianne Kupina spends time with her husband, Andrew McCarthy, at Kensington Hospice in Toronto on Feb. 7, 2012. Mr. McCarthy passed away on Feb. 20, 2012.

This rapid progression from introduction to working is certainly not the norm, and yet it did repeat itself the following day. Basia Hoffman, who had travelled from California to be with her mother, Andrée Hoffman, during her final moments, did not hesitate to allow me to be present in their lives. I think she was pleased that I hoped to find beauty in some of the moments that would be so sad. Where there is sadness in death, there is also love and tenderness.

While both families agreed to the presence of me and Lisa, it was still critical to have a frank and honest conversation. Not every acceptance comes so readily, but regardless, the initial conversations are when you lay it all on the line. This is when you try to understand the comfort level of each individual, improve it if you can, or at least determine how their comfort level might change over time. I try to establish a starting point with an understanding that the rules might evolve.

I would never photograph, or use images from a moment, that in anyway betrays the trust that people grant me. Only by being present, aware, flexible and sensitive, are you able to make photographs of those tender moments that will enhance the readers' understanding of your subjects' true experience. It is this trust that you hope for, and this trust that will allow you to be present when it really matters.

But you also need to know when to draw the line. You need to know when to back off, when to get close, and when to stop shooting. There may be moments when you are unsure of how to proceed. Anticipate this and discuss the possibilities openly before they arise. I simply let people know that if ever they find a situation where my presence is too much they only need give me a “look,” and I'll understand. They need to trust that they are in control, that they are making the rules, and that their comfort level and their lives are most important. And you need to understand that it is not your story that is paramount, but their lives.

You need to judge which moments are needed to tell the story and when an image is perhaps not worth the discomfort it might cause. This is a constant challenge, but one of which to be keenly aware. It will challenge your sensitivity as a human being and your skills as a visual storyteller.

This method has never failed me. I have certainly missed some moments over the years, but I have never walked away from a story feeling that I did more harm than good.

Stories of this nature can be emotionally draining, but it helps, at least for me, if you can take away some of the positive from the experience.

Mrs. Hoffman passed away during the night, with her daughters, Basia and Tatiana at her side, only hours after I had the pleasure of first meeting them. During the evening I was able to photograph some beautiful moments and before I left for the night I whispered a few words to her in her native French that included goodnight and thank you.

Andrew McCarthy, who had been a resident at Kensington Hospice for nearly six months, passed away on the afternoon of Feb. 20, 2012 with Marianne at his side. He was only 55 years old. Theirs was a love story, and one that I was privileged to see. On a Sunday, a week before he died, Marianne poured Andrew and I each a wee dram of Irish whisky. I was the last to have a drink with him and feel honoured to have done so.