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Fashion, Street and Portrait Photographer

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More from the Archives.

I created this editorial in March of 2015 while living in a studio apartment above a restaurant in Toronto. I was at Yonge and Eglington and I could hear the people of the restaurant sing Happy Birthday to their guests every once in a while. The place was wonderful and had tonnes of room to shoot, natural light, great water pressure and a skylight to boot. I had to keep a fresh supply of fuses though because they blew often.

The Model is Tracy Messenger and the creative editing was done by Kehli G, our MUA was Erica and we celebrated this getting published in Vigour Mag (in print) back in the day. Somehow I never posted the series to my Instagram feed so I corrected that mistake this week.

You can see the posts and follow the links for the team here.

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Archive.

I have over 300k in photos since I started in 2005, almost 20 years ago and I keep taking more.

What if I dug into my archive and started to share that with you? I think I just might.

Someone saw me looking at photos on my phone one day and was in awe of how curated they were and that I had them all organized into folders. That’s me, I am an organizer and a planner, a dreamer too. The combo makes me a pretty good artist, I think.

I want to share the journey with you.

This is a shoot I did with a brand called Snkr Box. Jason and I met at World Mastercard Fashion week and he charmed me into shooting for him. I say charmed because he never paid me, not for the rental of the gear, not for my time and not for my images.

So sometimes you will see someone’s social media feed full of amazing images and each one of those has a story, I can guarantee it.

This is just one of mine.

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Something different, a BW photo story.

In 2016 I visited friends in Florida at the time share and I shot quite a few rolls of BW film. I haven’t ever published that project and I wanted to share it here now.

I spent some time looking at the images I have stored on my phone today and feel like I may start posting them here and to my social media feeds because a lot of them have never seen the light of day.

When I have a camera in my hand and I see something that sparks my interest I make a picture and I don’t alway share that with you because it doesn’t fit what I have shot before or what I am showing in my feeds.

It is time to be seen, for all of my angles.

Enjoy.

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Mya, seaside editorial published in Selin magazine.

Mya and her Mom met me in front of my apartment and we walked down to the second beach to shoot.

I was carrying my gear and the wardrobe and we chatted as we walked.

We found a place that was sheltered from the wind and alternated in changing in the washroom and sometimes on the beach. Mya’s mom was a wonderful help and kept an eye on the gear while we moved around the beach hiding from the wind and finding a shady spot from the sun.

I sent the images to the agency for selection and then I sent my favourites out for publication. I wanted to surprise Mya and the agency and I did. This spread, Mya, seaside was published in Selin Magazine Issue 39 Volume 32 and you can get a copy here.

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Daisy, at home editorial published in Vigour Magazine.

Daisy is kind of magic to work with and I think you can see that magic in these images. They showed up with no makeup and natural hair and we made these images within an hour and called it a day because we knew we had it.

I had the wardrobe ready and the backdrop pinned to a wall in my apartment. It was fairly chilly outside so I chose to shoot inside, we have a fair weather shoot planned for when the temperatures rise and I can’t wait.

If you want a copy of the magazine you can find it here The April issue celebrates fashion and makeup and the spreads in the printed magazine are fabulous.

Enjoy!

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Jordan, Her Place editorial for GMARO Magazine.

I love working with this powerhouse, Jordan, a single mom I met when I was working in a restaurant. They are a manager at the facility and I bumbled my way through an expo position. I had no idea what that position was until I started there and they offered a kind hand in learning the ropes and are always up for creating together.

I brought the wardrobe and we mixed a few pieces in from their wardrobe and I created images around their apartment. A huge fan of plants’ natural light and minimalism it is easy to create together in their space and make magic. I love this shoot how it came together and how it was published. The magazine chose the two-page spreads and I love them. Wait I already said that, I think you know what I mean.

This shoot was published in GMARO Magazine April 2024 Issue #05

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Nostalga.

I started shooting fashion by photographing the people on the street with interesting outfits.

If you know me you know that my bathroom always has a string of outfits ready to wear, ironed, matched and hanging waiting to be put on. Right now I have 12 in there ready to go. I have been making outfits like this as long as I have lived on my own. I love it. When I travel I pack way in advance, a slew of outfits for the possible occasions that will occur. I even do it when I go camping.

I don’t seem like the fashionista, I know, and I don’t spend a lot of time recording my outfit of the day for social media (see previous post). I just love it, the planning and execution of a perfect outfit is always confirmed by a compliment or three when you are out in the real world.

Yesteday a man walking past me just said ‘so stylish’ and I just kept walking. Enough said.

I was thinking about what to post today while I was starring at my computer screen and this just came to mind.

Sometimes things just do. Like the time someone carried me over a puddle at World Mastercard Fashion week in Toronto so I wouldn’t get my Prada loafers wet. They were thrifted and too small but I loved them and wore them anyway.

I think when I moved to Vancouver and figured out the garbage was collected in the lane and started to find things when the end of the month or garbage day rolled around sparked something in me about fashion, about how this all comes together and how it can make you feel. Even if it is just something you plan like everything else in life, it an also bring you joy.

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Social Media.

I find myself creating ‘content’ just so I have something to post.

I have lost my centre with this method and I have been working on getting it back because Photography means so much to me. It is part of my core and it will never go away so I am learning how to create something new, despite the constant monkey on ones back to create content.

I have been thinking about a really different way of doing things and I just ordered something to help me try it out. Stay tuned but know in the meantime I am in limbo and will be there until the compass points north and I feel comfortable with that direction.

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Aiden, rooftop and below editorial for Selin Magazine.

Aiden, rooftop and below editorial for Selin Magazine.

I met Aiden in a vintage shop and asked if he would be up for a shoot. He looks like he is from another era and I wanted to capture that vibe. I asked him to bring his clothes so he could style the shoot. We created the editorial on my rooftop and then went into the lane. At one point 3 great blue herons were watching us.

If he ever wanted to take up modeling I hope he uses these images to start because he did great.

Issue 38 Vol 17 is available here, when was the last time you bought a magazine?

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Lane Finds and an emotional plea.

I have an episode of Lane Finds for you. It's the 16th one and I am truly getting exhausted. If you follow my feed you will see a post from the Downtown Eastside asking for donations of clothing and pet food.

The situation is dire so if you can donate, please do. Just go there directly, they are looking for any kind of warm, clean clothing. Pick one and just go and give.

My regular pick-up went on vacation for almost two months and I had so many bags to donate in my apartment I really got disheartened with the whole project. People have the way and means to get these donations to the people who need them. I do not have a car and I am physically lugging all of this back to my apartment, washing it (lugging it up and down 3 flights of stairs and paying $2.50 a load to wash and $2.25 to dry). I then bag it and get it ready for Gloria to pick up and she takes it to her garage and sorts it for the many places who either pick it up from here or she drops it directly to.

This is truly a labour of love.

The downtown East Side needs help and everyone is pledging to help in some way or somehow on social media. This is one way you can get involved, donate a bag to a shelter of good clean usable clothing that you are not using anymore. DO NOT THROW YOUR OLD CLOTHING AWAY.

I literally grabbed an armful from a lady who was just about to throw it into the bin last week.

I know she thought I was crazy and I don’t give a shit. Why throw out perfectly good clothing?

I am not talking about donating to Value Village - they are a for-profit company and are not doing anything to help the DTES please dispel this myth, If you don’t believe me please do some research and you will find what you need to know what they actually are and who they are currently supporting.

Want to buy something for them - they need socks, underwear and toiletries to get by.

Each day there are ‘sweeps’ at 8 am, the city is taking everything from people who are sleeping on the street and leaving them with nothing, rain, shine, cold or hot it’s constant.

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Francesca, Night and Day for GMARO Magazine.

Francesca, night and day editorial for GMARO Magazine February 2024 Issue #17.

You can grab a copy of the magazine here if you want to enjoy the pages.

I reached out to Francesca with the idea of shooting in my apartment during the harsh weather days and she had the idea for the wardrobe and this editorial is the final result. I think we make a great team.

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Jordan in Denue.

Sometimes you find someone you just really click with and I found that with Jordan, we shoot every once in a while and when we do we always have a great time.

This spread is for Denue published in Issue 9 of Vigour Magazine in January, you can grab a copy here.

Denue is a denim reseller based in Toronto, you should check them out.

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Felix, on Assignment - editorial for Beautica Magazine.

I swing into the Blanche MacDonald Fashion Styling several times a term to document the student projects.

I spotted Felix and knew I wanted to push to publish this spread, and Beautica Mag was happy to make that dream come true. It meant allowing a new model and a student to see their work in print. TaDa! I love connecting the dots and showing people the way, it’s why we are here.

To give back.

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Ethan, Jilted for Vigour Magazine.

I got my hands on a wedding dress and immediately reached out to Ethan to see if he would be interested in shooting with it and he was a big YES. We had so much fun!

The editorial is in the February issue of Vigour Magazine.

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Denim and Denue

I love Denim, if you have been here for a while you will know that too.

So when I had the idea to reach out to a friend in Toronto who is reselling vintage denim I didn’t hesitate because Justin loves Denim as much as I do. Denue is his side hustle and I think it’s very cool.

We created these images on a rainy day in December inside my 60-year-old apartment building and Justin put together these mock-ups with dreams of them becoming billboards one day. I love them and I can’t wait to see what he is going to do with this company. In the meantime, I am grateful to be on the ground floor of the creative stage.

Special thanks to Home Team Models for being a part of this creative, John and Cheyenne were so fun to work with and the denim looks great on them.

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Kobi, in the Sun and editorial for Selin Magazine.

Hello and welcome to 2024. I am a little late with my greetings because I took a bit of time before the hustle and bustle of the year began to just sit still for a while and relax.

I have been wanting to work with Kobi for a minute and my dream finally came true so being patient does pay off. So does taking some time to rest too. We created this spread in my home studio with natural light. I styled the shoot and Kobi brought his personality and lots of stories from his recent adventures.

This editorial is published in Selin Magazine’s Issue 36 Volume 37 and available here.

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Submissions

Every time I shoot I submit it for publication and there’s a platform that makes it so easy to do that.

It’s called Kavyar and I owe it all of my publication success over the past few years. Before that, we used to keep a manual list, a spreadsheet as it were and send out submissions in a very clunky way with loose ends left untied and credits you forgot. Once the submission was out there you would cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Kavyar makes it so easy and I love it.

So this is how I make the sausage, how about you?

Do you have a story to share? I want to hear it.