Literary Photographer

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Naomi Lakritz, in the Calgary Herald, has a column pointing out results from a poll showing that 50% of Canadians can’t name a Canadian author.

When I first began my project photographing writers, in Calgary in the late 90′s, Bob Stallworthy was my first subject. The photo above is from that shoot. The photograph is included in my first book of portraits First Chapter published by the Banff Centre Press. ————————————————————————————————————————- LP: In Silhouette, Profiles of Alberta Writers is series [...]

I recently dropped by to see Emily Carr, the well known West Coast artist and writer, and, yes, she’s been dead since 1945. That doesn’t stop people like myself from visting her gravesite in Victoria’s Ross Bay Cemetery. The cemetery is the final resting place for a who’s who of British Columbia history but it’s [...]

Greg Gatenby’s ‘Toronto, A Literary Guide’ published in 1999 is a thick book that provides a tour of residences and places in Toronto that have a literary connection.  This March, Stephen Cain, writing in Open Book Toronto,  told about a walking tour of the Annex area that he and another person designed using Gatenby’s book [...]

Terence Byrnes LP: You have been taking photographs for many years, what drew you to writers? TB: Well, I’ve also been writing. My first collection of short stories was called Wintering Over, I published an anthology called Matinees Daily, wrote for many magazines, and, during a dark and busy period of my life, ghost-wrote other [...]

LP: Your childhood, salmon fishing and a certain part of the lower mainland where you grew up play an integral role in most of your writing. Can you fill us in on that background? TB: Re; my background: I was born in Vancouver and immediately taken under the Fraser (via the Deas Tunnel) to Ladner [...]

First off, let’s look at who Rob Wiersema is. You’ve been described 
as a writer, journalist and bookseller. You’re also married and a 
father. How do you balance all these roles? Not all that well, depending on the day, to be perfectly honest.
The fact is, my job at the bookstore is full time. Writing is [...]

A link and story from Eric Kisor’s The Reluctant Blogger after reading an interview with photographer Miriam Berkely in Eric Forbe’s Book Addict’s Guide To Good Books. Berkely specializes in photographing authors and there are a lot of samples of her work on all the links. Check out the image of Stephen Hawking. In the [...]

Photographing writers is not new. Many other photographers have specialized in images of authors. Two photographers who introduced me to the idea of photographing writers were John Reeves and Sam Tata. Reeves, a Toronto photographer who works with a large format camera, is known for his images of people connected with the arts, including writers. [...]

A is for Atwood, which is as good as any place to begin. That’s her photograph at the top of this page. The other portraits are Peter Oliva (at left) and Wayson Choy. I make a living as a photographer but am fascinated by the world of writing. All writing and all aspects although I [...]