Patrick Kavanagh - A Photographic Memory
by Sally Hansen
As soon as I was seated in front of a cozy fire in Patrick Kavanagh’s home in Lake Park on the edge of Mississippi Lake near Carleton Place, he brought out his family photograph album. In it was one of the most captivating portraits I have ever seen. It looked like a painting by Norman Rockwell for the cover of “Saturday Evening Post,” even though it was black and white. The amazing thing about it was that I knew that the boy in the photo had red hair. It was a candid photograph of Patrick. And yes, he had red hair.
Patrick traces his own interest in photography back to his childhood days in England when his father, the late Patrick Desmond Kavanagh, was taking those family portraits. The family moved to Saskatoon when Patrick was nine, and moved again to Dunrobin in 1970. Patrick has studied marine navigation, journalism and electronics. At the age of 22 he thumbed his way from Ireland to Istanbul, carrying only a knapsack, a tent and a sleeping bag. “Those six months were the best education I ever got. It really taught me common sense. I learned to listen to my gut, trust myself, and to be comfortable in my own skin.” His biggest regret is that he did not have a camera with him.
Delete Not
He’s been making up for it ever since, creating an impressive collection of photographs and snapshots. He differentiates between the two because sometimes, for the sake of expediency, he takes snapshots to capture the moment. One of his opportunistic snapshots taught him an invaluable lesson about culling his shots. Don’t. At the Ottawa Blues Fest in 1997, he got a less-than-satisfactory photo of Blues legend Luther Allison.
Dissatisfied with the image, he destroyed it. Two weeks later Luther Allison was dead of lung cancer. I believe Patrick when he tells me he will never again delete his images of a special moment in time. He still remembers when he was just a kid taking shots of Johnny Cash at the Ottawa Exhibition.
Over the years, his love of capturing precious moments in time developed into a full-blown passion for “serious” photography, and Kavanagh eventually became a founding member of the “elusive, evasive (and somewhat legendary) photography group ‘7Again’.” He is also an active member of the local photography group “Photography Matters,” centred in Almonte, and a member of Arts Carleton Place www.artscarletonplace.com.
Creativity Exposed
Patrick was the first member of Photography Matters to shoot “Naked in the House”. To be perfectly clear, Patrick wasn’t naked; the model was. Kavanagh helped organize the group’s first annual challenge designed to promote and exhibit the wide range of artistic creativity possible through photography. Building on an idea by Toronto fashion photographer Dan Couto, each participant has thirty minutes to shoot a maximum of 36 images of the same nude subject(s) in the same locale. Digital and film photographers are held to the same criteria — one camera, one lens, and only ambient light. This year Patrick was one of the designated documenters, photographing the photographers at work during the group’s fifth annual challenge. The real challenge for the photographers is selecting up to three images to exhibit in a show at Lux Photographic Services at 11 Lake Ave. West in Carleton Place (253-2299). Each documenter displays one image.
Like his father before him, Kavanagh is first and foremost a film photographer. His mentor and fellow film aficionado is Michael Bowie of Lux Photographic Services. (Michael was featured in the February 2008 issue of theHumm.) “There are not enough hours in the day to say all the nice things about Janice and Michael Bowie,” Patrick tells me. But like the Bowies, Kavanagh worries that his days as a film photographer are numbered. Supplies are vanishing as the inevitable consequence of the inexorable market dominance of digital photography.
Delayed Gratification
“My father believed that the demise of photography was the introduction of colour film,” he laughs ruefully. He concedes that there are pros and cons for both film and digital, but it is clear he relishes the slower pace of film. Although Kavanagh has studied electronics and works as a technical writer for an air traffic and air information software systems firm, he doesn’t crave the instant gratification that digital photography affords. He would rather take fewer, better-planned shots than succumb to the lure of countless “free” digital exposures. He feels it is less onerous to drop your film off for developing than to rush home and spend endless hours poring over your endless images on your computer making endless improvements via software. To Kavanagh, it is better to “get it right in your camera.” There is no debate on that point.
Like Michael Bowie, Patrick also knows that digital media are prone to obsolescence and failure. Who among us is still using CDs to store our photos? Who has never had a computer or a disk drive crash? Who has multiple backups of every photo we would regret losing? Who has devised (and maintains) an efficient, effective retrieval system for all our images? The beauty of Patrick Kavanagh’s photo album from fifty years ago is that he can take it off the shelf and show it to me. Will your grandchildren be able to access and view the images you are blithely storing on terabyte external drives and memory sticks? Will the software work in fifty years? Kavanagh and Bowie make the same point; if the image is precious, commit it to archival quality printing.
As a writer of technical documentation, it’s not surprising that Patrick’s principal advice to beginning photographers is “Know your equipment. The first book you should read is your camera’s manual.” He also thinks that techno lust is ill-advised. “If you’re smart, you’ll pick and choose. Too many people assume and consume without doing enough smart consumer homework.” The staggering costs of returns of consumer electronics prove his point — in June 2008 PC World reported returns for 2007 at $13.8 billion in the US alone!
Despite his reservations about the excesses of digital photography, Kavanagh has begun exploring its creative possibilities. His results are original and intriguing. A thorough understanding of the photographic process only increases his appetite for experimentation, and I saw evidence that in some cases the new medium just might be the message. Patrick enjoys sharing his work and discussing his views on photography. Consider joining Photography Matters, or just give him a call at 253-8854. His email address is pmkavanagh@hotmail.com.