portrait: catherine (2)
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photography
portrait: catherine (1)
portrait: jeff (ft. catherine)
[PORTRAIT SERIES] Katrina – 3
[PORTRAIT SERIES] Katrina – 2
[PORTRAIT SERIES] Katrina
foreword
About fifteen minutes from our university campus is a lovely little place called Nauman’s Farm. It’s a bit of a tradition to go every year at the start of fall, but since I had already been last year, I wanted to make the most out of my second visit.
Photographing Katrina for my portrait series was a last minute decision. Having only gotten close to her within the past month, I was unsure whether she would mind doing me a favour, but was pleasantly surprised when she agreed with unexpected enthusiasm.
The day was sweltering, the air was sticky, and the sun beat down on us at nearly thirty degrees. Katrina never once complained as I stole her away from her friends to make her lie down in the pumpkin patch or go into the corn maze. She was extremely patient, and a tad bit shy, but her willingness to be herself really shone through and the photographs turned out better than I could have hoped for.
There are a lot of things I’ve come to appreciate about Katrina. Aside from her patience and kindness, she is quite simply a great friend. She has a genuine desire to do good and to put others before herself — the kind of goodness that doesn’t seek in return, but rather gets satisfaction just from the act of goodness itself. As we work alongside each other as student leaders this school year, I’ve realized how amazing it is to have someone like that on a team, and as a friend. Fall brings the warmest colours, and if Katrina’s personality could be anything, it’d be yellows and oranges, reds and greens. Her sense of warmth and sweetness is as comforting as a bright Fall day.
After a great shoot, we sit down on a vacant bench so I can ask her some questions. We stare out at our wild friends taking ridiculous selfies among the pumpkins. She’s humble in her answers, and shares with me a bit about where she’s travelled, an old passion hobby, and what her friends mean to her.
September 24, 2017 / Katrina
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[oh, the places i’ve gone] part 2
[PORTRAIT SERIES] Meaghan – 3
foreword
It took two pictures for me to know that Meaghan had definitely modelled before. To me, working with someone who is so comfortable in front of a camera always comes as a happy surprise and a luxury.
But the funny thing about Meaghan is the fact that you’d never be able to pin down her personality just by looking at her. Meaghan lived on my floor in our first-year university dorm, and it wasn’t until well into the year that I really got a grasp on who she is. I always thought she was unbelievably cool — a classy dresser, very artistic, passionate about social issues that also resonated with me. And she is, most definitely, super cool. What I didn’t realize until later, however, is that she is also endearingly wacky.
For this series, never before have I ever wanted to give up and post the audio of the interview portion instead of writing it out, but I found that Meaghan’s answers were kind of hard to transcribe. Her sense of humour, tone of voice, and the colour of her personality really doesn’t shine through merely in words. She is such a careful and amusing story-teller; a funny and warm soul who makes the smallest, simplest things seem outrageously entertaining.
In our first-year winter term, Meaghan also started “PRISM”, a Gender-Sexuality Alliance club at St. Jerome’s (a smaller community within the University of Waterloo.) This is something that meant a lot to people, even just having a club like this exist — being visible and supportive of LGBTQ+ people and issues. And I admire Meaghan for taking initiative; taking an idea that she was passionate about, and putting that into action.
Her shoot took place entirely on the St. Jerome’s campus — a place that means so much to us that we both decided to return to it as student leaders this year. I ask her about what she’d tell her younger self, what PRISM means to her, and the kinds of music she listens to.
September 22, 2017 / Meaghan
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[PORTRAIT SERIES] Meaghan – 2
[PORTRAIT SERIES] Meaghan – 1
[oh, the places i’ve gone] part 1
PLACES ♡ part 1
Higher Ground Coffee – Belfountain, Caledon, ON
Coffee shops are rather romanticized these days but it’s probably because they are so conducive to productivity and imagination. Grab a seat in the corner of the shop, in front of the window. Watch people and pretend you know their stories. Listen to the hiss of steaming milk, and the sound of patrons’ conversations climbing over each other. In a coffee shop, my mind is both cluttered and uncluttered; it is focused, and my heart is calm. The fragrance of caffeine might be sharp and bitter but to me, it’s sweeter than candy. Coffee shops are about atmosphere, almost as much as they are about coffee.
Kensington Market, Toronto, ON
This is a bookstore in Kensington Market. The shop was small and cramped and the air was dusty and the books were bursting unevenly off the shelves, and it was beautiful. I’m sure this tiny place had a lot of old, hidden gems. I love bookstores so much. They’re quiet adventures, time machines, secret corners of the world hiding in plain sight. Nothing breathes magic like that.
Spirit Tree Estate Cidery – Terra Cotta, Caledon, ON
I think it’s funny how you can drive less than an hour from home and end up somewhere that feels so far away. I used to think small towns and endless rolling fields were too quiet and boring for me, but I think — like a lot of things in life — it’s all about perspective. At the end of the day, I’m still more cut out for the city. But there is charm in simplicity, if you allow yourself to embrace it.
[PORTRAIT SERIES] Emily – 3
foreword
… she never resigned herself to satisfaction.
There are few people in my life who understand my love for writing, at an incredibly deep and personal level. Emily is one of them. She is a smart and critical thinker, a well-rounded and diligent student, talented in all areas — and she is 5ft of loud, crazy laughter.
I can’t pinpoint the start of our friendship. But I can say that we spent three years of high school English together — most notably, senior year AP English, which was the best class I ever took during my four years in high school. I would venture to say it left a similar impression on Emily, as well. Everything we read, wrote and learned in that class stimulated creativity and valuable discussion. I fell in love with it. And I never would have had the guts to apply for that class if it weren’t for Emily. She is the kind of friend that makes you want to be better, and do more. Of course, many of my friends are sources of motivation. But Emily in particular stirs an equal and beautiful mix of envy and admiration within me. No matter how high her grades were, no matter how numerous her extra-curricular activities, she never resigned herself to satisfaction. That kind of talent, resolve, and hard work is something I continue to admire, as she continues to exemplify it.
She has read my writing — fiction and other — in some of its roughest forms. Writing, to me, is extremely personal, but I know, in my heart, that I can trust Emily with anything because she understands who I am; what goes on in my head behind every character and every sentence.
For my sixteenth or seventeen birthday card, she didn’t just write me a card. She wrote me fan fiction about our future selves. (In the story, I live in a grand, quiet house outside of the city with a few cats. She comes to visit me. I show her the latest draft of my newest story over two glasses of red wine.) I cried when I first read that story. It was so dumb, but the idea that she saw us being friends ten years, or more, into the future touched my heart. We are not usually cheesy people. But writing has a way of being so honest.
For this shoot, we went to visit my best friend, Celine, in Oakville. I shot Emily’s photos mostly by a beautiful lake and dock. A handful of shots were also taken a couple days before, on the small street outside of our friend, Lourdes’, house. I ask Emily questions in small, downtown Oakville, with some melting ice cream cones in hand. We sit on a bench by the street. The traffic is steady around us, and the evening is warm. She talks to me about writing, motivation and nostalgia.
July 8, 2017 / Emily
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