PHOTO ESSAY

Northern Exposures

Lovers of Canadian photography get Carte Blanche

By Alec Scott

April 20, 2006

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The Death of Julia Charles. Photograph by Lucas Oleniuk.

Lucas Oleniuk is a globetrotting war and disaster photographer. He was in Grenada documenting the aftermath of a tropical storm when the Toronto Star retained him to go to Haiti. “Flash flooding brought on by hurricane Jeanne reportedly killed nearly a hundred people,” Oleniuk comments, via e-mail, about the assignment that led to this shot. “It was very important to me that I named this photograph ‘The Death of Julia Charles,’ because I wanted to personalize this tragedy.” Oleniuk included this 22-year-old teacher’s name to make up, he says, for invading her privacy. “Although I tried to compose the photograph as respectfully as possible, I, in fact, exploited the defenseless body of a dead woman and robbed her of a respectful end.”