The Ottawa Citizen ran an editorial comment on my show USER.

I’ve been sort of blown away by the response so far to the images in the show.
I must admit to being a little bit worried about how the people in the photos
would react to seeing themselves on a gallery wall. They’d all seen the pictures,
I gave them copies of the shots they were in. It’s one thing seeing the pix in your
hand out on the street, quite another to see them big and in a frame and up on
a wall for anyone to look at. So far, every one I’ve spoken with who is in a picture
on the wall of the gallery has expressed support for what I’ve done. I can’t tell you
how much that means to me.

And, by the way, any picture that gets sold…..a portion of the money goes to the
person (or people) in that photo.

OTTAWA MAGAZINE

Ottawa Magazine ran 7 pages of pictures from this project in their November issue.
They assigned writer Justin Kingsley to interview some of the subjects so I took him
down to the corner and introduced him to the folks I could find. The result was quite
amazing. Stories that you just have to read.

I’m going to be posting the stories and corresponding photos here over the next few
weeks. Here’s two to get you started…….

CANDACE

My parents were dead by the time I got to be 14, so it wasn’t long
before I got married. I just wanted to be a perfect mom. Motherhood
makes a woman complete. It made me whole. It’s where my heart is.
I was a mom from the get-go.

I’m from Ottawa, Little Italy, and I was brought up that you do anything
for your neighbours. That’s just the way it was. My dream when I was little
was to become a mom and a housewife, and that’s exactly what I was. I’m 47
now and my kids are 30 and 29, but none of my family knows I’m down here.

I only ever wanted to be a perfect housewife and I was. I never screwed around
on my husband. I went to church. I even read the Bible to my kids. Seafood
fettuccine is my best dish, and I do a really good lobster boiled. Really good.

I worked in restaurants and hotels around Ottawa. Granato’s. The Brit Hotel in
Aylmer. Chaudière, at the golf course. I’d never done drugs, except for pot.
Then I tried crack for the first time, it was 18 months ago. A couple of friends
asked me if I wanted to try it. I’d been watching them get high and it looked
like a great buzz.

There’s nothing like crack and good sex. Nothing. Want a blowjob or something?

JOSH

I wore Number 9 and I played centre or right wing. I was so into sports,
man, it was my thing. I played for the Dartmouth Whalers. We had blue
and white uniforms and the logo was just like the old Hartford Whalers
but with a sideways W, you know?

I was better than average. I was drafted to the Quebec Major Junior League
when I was 16. What happened? Drugs. If I showed you a picture of me from
before, you wouldn’t believe it. Preppy shirts, long hair, the whole bit. I come
from a good family. We had money. Well, our family had money—not my parents
or anything, but, like, my grandparents and stuff. I was even good in school until,
like, Grade 4 or 5.

I have a good heart, like my father. He was a really sweet, great guy. His name
was Darryl. He died when I was 18. Before I came to this city, I experimented
with a lot of different drugs. I tried everything. I always felt really bad about it,
but where I come from, this is what you did to be cool. The first time I tried crack
I was with my buddy and my buddy’s uncle.

I wanted to try it.

___________________________________________________________________________

And, on a more whimsical note:

My friend Lisa was in Zimbabwe last month where she spotted this fellow wearing
a Tony Fouhse Photography cap. Global penetration baby, that’s what I’m after.