Photo Friday: Photojournalism

In the summer of 1987, I worked as a reporter and photographer for the Low Down to Hull and Back News, a community paper that is based in Wakefield, Québec. It was my first job at a newspaper, outside of my six-week internship at The Ottawa Citizen.

Being a small-town paper, I often had to find the stories where I could: there was a farmer who was fighting town council to get calcium for his Lac La Pêche dirt road, so that the dirt that was kicked up from cars wouldn't fall on his fields. There was the man near Lac Bernard, who had been on an expedition to the North Pole, who was now raising rare breeds of dogs. When Mont Ste. Marie ski resort was installing the region's first quad lift, I was there to cover the story.

I know. Exciting stuff.

Other things just fell in my lap. For instance, the main road through Wakefield was suddenly cleared, as were all of the cars in the parking lot of the Wakefield General Hospital, and the neighbouring manor inn, because a patient needed to be airlifted to Ottawa. I waited, with the police, to capture the helicopter's landing (it was a tight area, surrounded by trees and power lines) and the patient being loaded into the air ambulance.

I enjoyed driving around the Gatineau region, looking for photo opportunities. When there was talk about bringing the steam train back into service, I made my way to an isolated and overgrown stretch of track to capture an image. When plans resumed to extend Highway 5, which, in 1987, ended at Scott Road, in Chelsea, I drove past the barriers at the end of the southbound lane, climbed atop the rocks, and shot where now is a dual-carriageway overpass.

One of my favourite pictures that I took was during the annual fair, at the end of the summer, in Rupert. It wasn't much of a fair: a few pony rides, a home-made arcade with simple games, and basic food for sale.

I took a photo down the main street, trying to capture all of the so-called action, but there really wasn't a decent angle to make the fair stand out. I was about to count my losses, when I spied a young girl sitting on a painted, metal chair, blowing bubbles. Her knees where scratched and bruised from doing what all kids do. Another young girl looked over her.

With my telephoto lens on my Minolta X-700, I crouched from the other side of the street and snapped two shots in quick succession.

The story about the fair was only a couple of lines, describing what a reader could have found there. Because our paper came out weekly, by the time the story ran, the fair was already over.

But the photo stood out and made covering the story worthwhile.

In the album where I store many of these photos (yeah, I took a bunch with me when I left), they are all now faded and yellowing. I should digitize and restore more of them, to remember that summer 33 years ago. But I thought I would start with this one.

Happy Friday!