Ms Paulette Michayluk
Toronto. On the chilly evening of June 16, 2021 we went online with ZOOM to hear the latest Toronto speaker. Paulette is a photographer, a podcaster (Defend the Darkroom) and a printer of both digital and specialized photographic processes. Paulette was originally from Alberta where she studied art at the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACADU) and psychology at the University of Alberta. She has held a variety of responsible positions and currently resides in Toronto. Her talks open with an acknowledgement of the various aboriginal tribes once prominent in the area being used at the moment.
Our programme director, Celio. opened the evening with background to the sessions plus a few rules. PHSC president Clint Hryhorijiw followed with very sound reasons for all non members in the audience to join our society.
Paulette showed her experience and acumen by quickly encouraging all audience members to enter the discussion by answering a question on what is inspiring to them. She followed by giving some of her personal background, emphasizing photography as the common thread.
She switched to split screen and control of the slides to allow her to time their duration. Paulette’s first personal inspiration came from Penelope Stewart in Ontario, showing examples of Stewart’s photographic work on silk organza (10 feet by 10 feet!).
Her next inspiration came from Marcel Petit of Saskatchewan and Ruth Kaplan. Marcel is, “best known for a body of work that he did with the poor villages in Cambodia”. Photographer Ruth Kaplan was born in Montreal but now lives here (Toronto). Paulette says, “Ruth is just an incredible observer … I love her skill for being able to see, and being able to be quiet and just taking in a point of view.”
Paulette segued into “eggs Benedict” to introduce her next inspiration, the 18th century photographer and businesswoman, Hannah Maynard – familiar to early readers of the PHSC journal (Vol 11-5), our monthly Toronto meetings, or the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of PhotoEd magazine. According to Paulette’s talk, “ She [Hannah] started photographing in the 1860s, maybe even a little bit earlier, and was one of the premier business owners in Victoria BC. Her business was actually run out of John’s Place restaurant [where the ‘eggs Benedict’ came in], she actually owned that building.”
From stills, Paulette expanded to video/movie inspirations of a unique (to me) form. Her first inspiration in that genre was Antonio Martinez who teaches photography in Illinois. Antonio was into circus performances and movies. He shot a circus performance in B&W then transformed the frames into tintypes that were then resequenced and scanned to make another shorter video.
Paulette offered others, who were sources of inspiration to her, like basketball’s Chris Bosh, pinhole photographer Dianne Bos, and videographer Jamie Livingston. Like Antonio, Jamie too was a circus fanatic. But he also was famous for taking a polaroid photograph daily.
Summing up Paulette’s talk, she emphasized the virtues of being open minded, curious and experimental – don’t get stuck in a photographic rut. Her talk was followed by an enthusiastic Q&A session that added to her advice on inspiration. In all, it was a well done talk by an experienced speaker. Excellent ideas for inspiration to re-invent and invigorate everyone.
