This photograph displays Vancouver’s Granville Street when it was lit up in lights. The city’s abundant rain intensifies the colours of the light as it is reflected on the pavement. This is one of many photographs taken by Richard McGuire that will be on display at JoJo’s Cafe in Osoyoos for a show that kicks off this Saturday. (© Richard McGuire Photo)
The photography of Richard McGuire will be featured through December and early January at Jojo’s Café in Osoyoos.
The show opens on Saturday, Dec. 3 with a Night of Local Art and Music from 7 – 9 p.m. with live music by Roland Berg. The exhibition of McGuire’s photography runs from Dec. 3 to Jan. 6.
McGuire is a photographer/reporter with the Osoyoos Times, but only one photograph in the exhibit was done for the weekly newspaper.
Instead, the show features a mix of local landscapes, cityscapes at night and some of the exotic international locations where McGuire has travelled.
There are large photographs on canvas of horses racing, portraits of people in India and Cuba and an exposure of Carlsbad Caverns National Park that was used on a U.S. postage stamp celebrating the centennial of the U.S. National Park Service.
“In my personal photography, I’ve always tried to reflect a sense of place,” said McGuire. “I’ve been fascinated by exploration and travel since I was a child. It was my globetrotting as a teenager that first got me interested in photography.”
A sense of place, he said, is more than just snapshots of scenery.
People, their culture and their physical environment all contribute to the diversity of the world’s interesting places.
McGuire got his first box camera at the age of five, but he didn’t become serious about photography technique until he bought a used single-lens reflex film camera at the age of 20 and studied photojournalism the following year.
His photographs have been widely published internationally in books and magazines and have been bought by collectors in Canada and the U.S. He is a member of the Osoyoos Photography Club.
“I have not had a chance to show a selection of my personal photographs since I’ve been in Osoyoos, so most people are only familiar with the work I’ve done for the Osoyoos Times,” he said. “I’m especially grateful to Joanne Muirhead of Jojo’s Café, as well as to Jim Peltier and Alan Bleiken, who organize these events, for the chance to show my work in this venue.”
McGuire said he uses his photography skills to try and tell a story.
“There have been two major streams in the history of photography – those who create art for art’s sake and those who use photography to tell stories,” he said. “I’m definitely in the latter category. That doesn’t mean all storytelling photography is necessarily journalistic. And some of the best storytelling photographers are also very artistic. But personally, I reject the kind of photography that relies on heavy manipulation of images in the computer. Reality is more interesting.”
Like most good photographers, McGuire isn’t afraid to get dirty to get a great shot.
“One of the photos in the exhibition is of a chuckwagon race photographed at very close proximity with a wide-angle lens,” he said. “I was lying in a ditch right beside the track and looking up. I was taking a risk being there with horses thundering by, and my adrenalin was rushing at the time, but the result was an image that I think captures the fast action and excitement.
“One of the photos is a candid shot of a couple under an umbrella in the rain by the steam clock in Gastown, Vancouver,” he said. “ It was completely candid for the couple, but it took me about an hour and a half in the pouring rain to find the right angle, figure out how to light it, and wait for the right moment to happen.
“In a split second, they walked into the frame, lit their cigarettes and then it was over. They might have wondered about my flash bouncing up at them from the pavement.”
McGuire will be on hand Saturday evening to meet and greet members of the public who are checking out his show and he will gladly discuss the techniques he uses to shoot his acclaimed photographs.
If anyone is interested in more about McGuire’s photography, they can contact him at 250-485-8357 or by email at [email protected] or www.richardmcguire.ca
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Osoyoos Times
