PHOTO ESSAY

Northern Exposures

Lovers of Canadian photography get Carte Blanche

By Alec Scott

April 20, 2006

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Queen (No Eyes). Photograph by Christopher Wahl.

Toronto-based Christopher Wahl takes a different tack from the likes of Duffy, Samuel, Zibert and Whiteside. Here, he seeks to humanize an icon, to get behind a public person’s oft-shown mask. “It’s as if she and I are sharing a private, unscripted moment together,” Wahl says of this shot of the Queen blinking during a Royal Visit to Winnipeg in 2002. “I like to get people during awkward, somehow decisive moments,” he says, referring to other portraits in his portfolio: Iggy Pop yawning, Sean Penn greedily smoking a cigarette. In another picture taken during the same visit, Wahl captured Prince Charles from behind, focusing on a Band-Aid encircling his finger – thereby outing a celebrity’s humanity. “I’ve got to get where the rest of the pack of press photographers isn’t. You risk coming away with nothing, but you might also get the one shot that your grandchildren will still be able to see in their time.”