Monday, January 29, 2007


Malcolm Parry has a definition for the privileged position. A person in such a position is able to see what most cannot. This is why he dispatched many photographers to take pictures from the top of bridges, very high buildings or to fly low in a helicopter over Wreck Beach. In one such instance that I would rather forget he made my fly in a Harvard trainer (the British version of the AT-6 Texan) to photograph a stunt team flying upside down through the Lions in West Vancouver. To do the job I had to fill my mouth with Dramamine.

I do agree with Mac that looking up from below is not privileged. One has to be above and looking down. But I also believe that there are other forms of privileged positions. I remember vividly being told by a customs officer in the Acapulco airport that I could not bring in all my photographic equipment. I respectfully asked him to turn around as there was a gentleman there who had the necessary permits. He turned around and there was my friend Licenciado Felipe Ferrer Junco, the chief of the city's Judicial Police and his bodyguard holding an AK-47. I was whisked away without my bags being searched. I felt most privileged.



And here are two more examples of a privileged position of sorts. They were taken in the dressing rooms of well known Vancouver strip parlours. The one above left was at the Number 5 Orange and the other at the Drake Hotel.