The Photoshoot

A while back, I attended a reunion for Governor General history teaching award winners in Ottawa.  They asked if anyone wanted to be interviewed about anything new they were working on.  I volunteered and talked about this new project I am part of called Landscapes of Injustice.  The project is a massive 7 year multidisciplinary research project through UVic that is investigating the dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the 1940s, and they wanted some teaching resources for elementary and secondary schools.  I am in charge of the elementary part.  I chatted with the journalist who was doing the interviews, and we talked for about 20 minutes. 

I didn't think much about what was going to happen to the interview; I just thought it would go on Canada's History website somewhere.  The history society who sponsored the conference/reunion contacted me and told me that they were interested in running some of the interviews in their magazine.  They asked me to send them some recent photos.  I didn't have any so I got my mom to take a few, but they must not have been any good because the society rejected them.  Alternatively, they arranged for a professional photographer to take some shots of me on Powell Street because the work I am doing focuses on this area.

photo by Rebecca Blissett

I met the photographer outside the washrooms in Oppenheimer Park deep in the heart of the DTES.  Of course that day there was a massive soup line, so it was kind of hard to maintain a low profile.  The photographer was Rebecca Blissett.  I checked her out online before we met and she did some great portrait and photojournalism work, but I was really impressed with her rock concert work.  (She has this great shot of Bono splashing around a water bottle during a show).  We chatted for about ten minutes about what kind of work I was doing, and she picked up the context quickly.  We decided to take some pictures outside of some of the buildings that the students were working with in the dispossession activity.  

photo by Rebecca Blissett

We worked for about 40 minutes in the 300 block of Powell Street.  It was really cool that day so I slipped on a jean jacket I had in my trunk.  I was going to take it off, but Rebecca like the way it photographed.  She'd get me to do different poses outside some of the key buildings, and she'd stand out in the street to get the best angle.  Or she'd pull out a collapsible flash tree and umbrella, and we'd have to wait for people or traffic to go by.  It was interesting to watch her work.  When she was finished, we shook hands, and she hopped on her little gas scooter and scooted away.  Cool.

A bit later, she sent me some sample shots and told me to only use the shots for personal (not professional nor promotional) uses, but I haven't done much with them.  I posted one on Facebook, and Canada's History published them with a brief article in a pull out supplement to the magazine, (excerpted here with Canada's History's permission). 

We teachers don't get treated like rock stars very often, so it was a fun experience.