Do you know... Jean-victor ?

Jean-Victor with his Kodak folding camera and his rifle. Going on a «shoot».

NO  MAN  IS  AN  ISLAND


My father, Jean-Victor, inspired me to become a photographer. 
He enjoyed taking photographs.
In his early years he carried a Kodak folding camera with him everywhere. 
Then he purchased a 35mm Praktica. 
At the age of 30, he suffered a polio stroke. 
After his recovery, he had problems lifting his arms and could not bring the camera to his eye, so he bought himself a 2 1/4 Mamiya twin lens. 
He held this camera at waist level and composed the image on the ground glass.

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My grandmother. Circa 1900.

My grandfather also loved taking photographs.  
His favorite model was his wife.

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My father's hobby was taking photographs.

Top left: my mother & friends. Others: Cree Indians in Nitchequon. J-V-V ©

Taking photographs later become my job.

Portrait of my dad. Circa 1970. Carl Valiquet ©

In 1966, I quit University and worked as a darkroom assistant up in Churchill Falls, Labrador. I remember the first day in the darkroom; I developed and messed up the chief photographer's film. He wanted to put me back on the plane and send me off to Montreal, my hometown. 
But, he kept me on. Six months, after my contract was finished, my boss was sad to see me go, as I had become a very good black and white printer.
This is how a long career of creating pictures began.
I call this blog Do Yu No? , because every time I returned from my photo travels, I showed photographs of strangers to my mother and she would ask me:
«DO YOU KNOW THESE PEOPLE?»
To this day, 40 years later, almost every time I snap an image of a person, I smile and remember my mother's words.

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P.S. If you wish to see a film I did on my father, please click on the following title:
Eye of the Father. Eye of the Son.