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Of all the photos I’ve ever taken, and some of of them have been pretty sweet, this one is my favourite. It’s the b/w contrast, the way Christine is standing, how she’s looking at the camera, her eyeliner, the street and sidewalk stretching into infinity, my shadow on the sidewalk… I’ve taken better photos, and even more interesting ones, but this is my absolute favourite. The song is “Dissolved Girl” by Massive Attack.

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Technical Stuff: I used my Minolta SLR, or my ‘big boy camera’, for this shot. At this point I was still enamoured with Kodak Pro CN 400 film. It’s a black and white film that can be developed in a colour processor. So instead of waiting a week for my Tri-X or TMax to get developed, I could use any of Toronto’s street corner 30 Minute developers. Unfortunately the process leaves a green tinge on the prints and negatives. Which should have been an important lesson after developing the first two or three rolls. But I think I shot over 600 rolls with the CN BS. If you want a b/w photo, use b/w film.

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Christine and I lived as roommates together for about eight months along with another girl, Aurora. It was a basement “granny apartment” in the uber-swanky Rosedale part of Toronto. The ceiling was barely six-feet high, and there was no sound proofing between us and the main floor, so the kids upstairs used to make noise just to get a reaction from the kids downstairs — Christine (19) and Aurora (18) — who would then pound on the ceiling and scream at the children. It was actually a decent place to sleep. And I got to shop for groceries with CBC anchor, Peter Mansbridge.

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