In the midst of a craaaaazy week of shooting I hit the road.

MONTREAL

On Wednesday, to drop off the framed USER photos for my opening
there (Saturday).

916 Ontario St. East, home of IPS Gallery; Magida in the building’s stairwell

Unwrapping some of the pix

After we dropped the work I called up an old assistant Ari Tapiero,
who now lives and works in Montreal. We met up, had some lunch.

Magida and Ari and grafitti

After lunch we dropped by Gallerie du Viaduc, where Ari was showing
some of his portraits.

Ari in Galerie du Viaduc

TORONTO

On Friday, for the National Magazine Awards gala.

View from hotel room

The nominated pix in my category (portrait photography)

Cin and I got to the gala a little bit late, so the schmooze was held
to a minimum. Probably not a bad thing since I’m so bad at it, at
the schmooze. I feel uncomfortable and tongue tied, just want to
be a wallflower, until my evil twin takes over and I end up saying
the stupidest stuff. Fortunately most people take it as humour and,
once again, I escape with my reputation intact (and even, sometimes,
enhanced).

Anyhow, Clay Stang took it all in our category. I guess I would have
preferred to win myself but, if someone else had to take it I’m happy
it was him. That shot of his (of Peter Lougheed) was killer.

I also got to meet one of my heros…..Roger Lemoyme, photojournalist.

I’ve been looking, with awe, at Roger’s pix for years. In person he just
looks and feels and acts like a consummate pro photo-j. He also took
home a NMA, for a photo story he shot in Serbia, for Maisoneuve.

Also spotted at the gala were:

MONTREAL

Saturday was Montreal (again) for the USER opening at IPS Gallery.

Penny Cousineau-Levine’s shoe; Pitbull

This time there was no avoiding the schmooze. But I kinda liked
it. Maybe because I was the center of attention.

There was a swell turn out, I don’t have a ton of pix of the crowd,
too busy working the room. I did manage, tho, to squeeze in a
few shots.

And I even managed to shoot a few installation pix:

If you’d like to read the statement IPS Gallery issued about USER,
well, just click here.

AND, FINALLY, APROPOS OF NOTHING…..

I’ll leave you with three photos I took a long time ago: