Bryan Adams snaps photos for cancer research |
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TORONTO (CP) - "I just got a camera and started shooting," Bryan Adams says as he walks through his photo exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, pointing to some of his favourite images. For the past year and a half, the celebrated musician has been working on a project that put him in a photography studio as opposed to his more common habitat, the recording studio. Adams, 39, helped this week as a crew made final adjustments to his display of black-and-white photos of prominent Canadian women, the backdrop for a party to celebrate Flare magazine's 20th anniversary. The same photos grace the pages of his book Made in Canada (Key Porter). Proceeds from the sale of the book go directly to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. |
"I just got a camera and started shooting,¡± Bryan
Adams says. (CP/Kevin
Frayer) |
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The museum exhibit opens to the public Oct. 22. Adams' association with Flare began in March 1998 when it published a feature on his and model Linda Evangelista's efforts to raise money for a breast cancer screening centre in St. Catharines, Ont. He snapped the picture of Evangelista for Flare, and also included the photo in his new coffee table book. In his early years, Adams says he was more inclined to reach for his guitar than a camera, but he soon found practical reasons to carry both. "I bought my first camera when I went on one of my first tours in 1979," notes Adams, who looks decidedly boyish in his jeans rolled up wide at the bottom and a light grey sweatshirt. He would document his tours by snapping shots of "all those funny marquees," self portraits in hotels, and the band "lying around eating pizza." Later he started taking pictures of friends' weddings and giving them a "nicely framed picture" as a gift. He began to take his photography seriously when he decided the shots taken of him for albums didn't really look like him, so he took self portraits instead. Adams acknowledges that the book, with a forward by novelist Margaret Atwood, was indeed an "ambitious project." He points to a photo of fashion makeup artist Francis Hathaway. In it, she reveals her mastectomy to the world, but covers her face in silver paint. "I only wanted one breast in the book and that was Francis Hathaway's breast," he explains. As he walks through the gallery, Adams - who has an eye for detail - stops to suggest adjustments to one of the photos. "We're getting quite a shadow here," he observes. "I wonder if there's any way we could move that spot back a bit just so we can get a bit more of her eyes, or maybe you can raise the portrait." The 89 photos in the book include successful musicians, models, actors, athletes, and politicians. But Adams has a soft spot for a modest portrait of two aboriginal school girls from Toronto. "This is probably my favourite photograph of the whole exhibition," he says, smiling. "I really enjoyed shooting them." Pamela Anderson Lee - wrapped in a Canadian flag - was the most fun to shoot, he notes, adding that she was "just such a live wire." His close friend Donna, whose photo graces the cover of the book, died of breast cancer before she had a chance to see her photo. She is not identified by her last name. The exhibit moves in December to London, where Adams will include five new portraits of British women (Elizabeth Hurley and Joan Collins have already been shot). The photos will be auctioned to raise money for a breast cancer charity in London. ¨Ï The Canadian Press, 1999 |
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