Joanne
I was walking through the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto when I saw a flash of blue that grabbed my attention in an instant. She was entering a cosmetics store which gave me enough time to figure out the location for a portrait before approaching her. She came out a few minutes later and I introduced myself and my project and she listened with full attention and a smile. Without hesitation she was happy to participate and said it sounded really interesting. She had a few minutes and then had to return to the classroom. She teaches a sociology course at a private college located in the mall. We shook hands. Meet Joanne.
She wasn’t sure how to pose but took off her glasses and followed my request that she look into the lens of my camera (well, she did most of the time!) Joanne was animated and very friendly and people around us were interested and amused at the sight of the two of us doing our photo shoot in the midst of the mall. I told her how much I liked all the color and the way her scarf matched her hair. “Oh, thank you” she said with a laugh. “I’m afraid I went a bit heavy on the makeup today.” I told her it worked for her and all that color definitely caught my eye. I told her I’d seen her disappear into the store and didn’t want to interrupt her shopping so I had waited outside. She said “I’m looking for turquoise makeup and I can’t believe no place in the whole mall has any.” I told her she looked like someone who wouldn’t give up easily and I was sure she would find it sooner or later.
Joanne is 69 years old and said she was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Canada’s Atlantic shore. “I’m a real bluenoser” she said, a term that is used fondly to describe Nova Scotians. (www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/bluenoser-makes-it-int...) She was a bundle of energy and good will and when I told her I am a retired social worker she almost jumped off the floor and told me she is also a social worker and was trained at Hamilton’s McMaster University. She worked in the mental health field. “I used to be an intensive care nurse; social work is a second career for me.” I was impressed that she’s still teaching even though she’s on the brink of turning 70. She clearly has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. “I think these are just the most liberating years, don’t you? Actually, tonight I’m going to a meeting to find out about volunteering with Doctors Without Borders. I know they need professionals and I would be willing to donate a couple of years to such a good cause.” I asked if she encountered age discrimination in her work and she said “There is no such word as ageism in my vocabulary. Only experience.”
When I asked Joanne about the greatest challenge in her life she sidestepped the question by answering “Challenges only exist to give us more strength.” I laughed and said it was a great attitude. “You mean kind of like vaccinations?” She laughed and agreed. When I asked if she had a message for the project she said “I’m not put on this earth to comfort the disturbed. I ‘m here to disturb the comfortable” and pointed at her blue hair. “That’s what this is all about.” We both laughed.
I was concerned that I was making her late to class and she said “Oh, my students won’t mind. I’ll tell them about meeting you and they will be fascinated. As a matter of fact, come with me and I will introduce you to my class. They would like to meet you and hear what you are doing.” I thanked her and said I was short on time but perhaps another time.
Thank you Joanne for such a fun chat and for participating in my Human Family photography project. You are an inspiration.
This is my 203rd submission to The Human Family Group on Flickr.
You can view more street portraits and stories by visiting The Human Family.
Follow-up: I did receive an email from Joanne telling me how much she had enjoyed our meeting and my project and saying that her students were fascinated with my project and eager to meet me.
Intrigued that a project encounter had opened the door to this additional experience, I told Joanne I would be pleased to accept the invitation and looked forward to meeting her class on Monday morning. I arrived at 10:30 as planned and found the Herzing Career College exactly where she said it was, in the Eaton Centre mall, above a large bookstore (see comment photo). Most shoppers would never know there was a college in the mall (I didn’t). The receptionist was expecting me “Oh, you must be Jeff Bowen, the guest lecturer” and took me to the classroom. It was a small class of six or eight students and since Joanne had not quite finished her lecture, I was invited to join the class and listen. She made some interesting points about the social determinants of health and had some very strong opinions about the “medicalization” of emotional illnesses.
The students knew about me and my project and my past career so once I was introduced, I discovered that the students were more interested in hearing about my project than about my social work career so I spoke at some length about how I started with street portraiture and how this work grew on me. There were lots of questions and the students have my Flickr photostream up on their desktop computers as I spoke. It was really a fun experience and at the conclusion I asked one of the students to take a photo of me with Joanne and the class (see comment photo). I handed out the contact cards I use for the project and most of the students said they are going to start following my project on Flickr.
Joanne closed by explaining that the students are going to have to conduct an interview assignment soon and my comments about how I meet and interview strangers was going to be invaluable. All in all it was a great experience, one which I never would have expected when I stopped Joanne the previous week in the mall for a photo.
Joanne
I was walking through the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto when I saw a flash of blue that grabbed my attention in an instant. She was entering a cosmetics store which gave me enough time to figure out the location for a portrait before approaching her. She came out a few minutes later and I introduced myself and my project and she listened with full attention and a smile. Without hesitation she was happy to participate and said it sounded really interesting. She had a few minutes and then had to return to the classroom. She teaches a sociology course at a private college located in the mall. We shook hands. Meet Joanne.
She wasn’t sure how to pose but took off her glasses and followed my request that she look into the lens of my camera (well, she did most of the time!) Joanne was animated and very friendly and people around us were interested and amused at the sight of the two of us doing our photo shoot in the midst of the mall. I told her how much I liked all the color and the way her scarf matched her hair. “Oh, thank you” she said with a laugh. “I’m afraid I went a bit heavy on the makeup today.” I told her it worked for her and all that color definitely caught my eye. I told her I’d seen her disappear into the store and didn’t want to interrupt her shopping so I had waited outside. She said “I’m looking for turquoise makeup and I can’t believe no place in the whole mall has any.” I told her she looked like someone who wouldn’t give up easily and I was sure she would find it sooner or later.
Joanne is 69 years old and said she was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Canada’s Atlantic shore. “I’m a real bluenoser” she said, a term that is used fondly to describe Nova Scotians. (www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/bluenoser-makes-it-int...) She was a bundle of energy and good will and when I told her I am a retired social worker she almost jumped off the floor and told me she is also a social worker and was trained at Hamilton’s McMaster University. She worked in the mental health field. “I used to be an intensive care nurse; social work is a second career for me.” I was impressed that she’s still teaching even though she’s on the brink of turning 70. She clearly has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. “I think these are just the most liberating years, don’t you? Actually, tonight I’m going to a meeting to find out about volunteering with Doctors Without Borders. I know they need professionals and I would be willing to donate a couple of years to such a good cause.” I asked if she encountered age discrimination in her work and she said “There is no such word as ageism in my vocabulary. Only experience.”
When I asked Joanne about the greatest challenge in her life she sidestepped the question by answering “Challenges only exist to give us more strength.” I laughed and said it was a great attitude. “You mean kind of like vaccinations?” She laughed and agreed. When I asked if she had a message for the project she said “I’m not put on this earth to comfort the disturbed. I ‘m here to disturb the comfortable” and pointed at her blue hair. “That’s what this is all about.” We both laughed.
I was concerned that I was making her late to class and she said “Oh, my students won’t mind. I’ll tell them about meeting you and they will be fascinated. As a matter of fact, come with me and I will introduce you to my class. They would like to meet you and hear what you are doing.” I thanked her and said I was short on time but perhaps another time.
Thank you Joanne for such a fun chat and for participating in my Human Family photography project. You are an inspiration.
This is my 203rd submission to The Human Family Group on Flickr.
You can view more street portraits and stories by visiting The Human Family.
Follow-up: I did receive an email from Joanne telling me how much she had enjoyed our meeting and my project and saying that her students were fascinated with my project and eager to meet me.
Intrigued that a project encounter had opened the door to this additional experience, I told Joanne I would be pleased to accept the invitation and looked forward to meeting her class on Monday morning. I arrived at 10:30 as planned and found the Herzing Career College exactly where she said it was, in the Eaton Centre mall, above a large bookstore (see comment photo). Most shoppers would never know there was a college in the mall (I didn’t). The receptionist was expecting me “Oh, you must be Jeff Bowen, the guest lecturer” and took me to the classroom. It was a small class of six or eight students and since Joanne had not quite finished her lecture, I was invited to join the class and listen. She made some interesting points about the social determinants of health and had some very strong opinions about the “medicalization” of emotional illnesses.
The students knew about me and my project and my past career so once I was introduced, I discovered that the students were more interested in hearing about my project than about my social work career so I spoke at some length about how I started with street portraiture and how this work grew on me. There were lots of questions and the students have my Flickr photostream up on their desktop computers as I spoke. It was really a fun experience and at the conclusion I asked one of the students to take a photo of me with Joanne and the class (see comment photo). I handed out the contact cards I use for the project and most of the students said they are going to start following my project on Flickr.
Joanne closed by explaining that the students are going to have to conduct an interview assignment soon and my comments about how I meet and interview strangers was going to be invaluable. All in all it was a great experience, one which I never would have expected when I stopped Joanne the previous week in the mall for a photo.