In my darkest hours, what has saved me again and again is some action of unselfing- some instinctive wakefulness to an aspect of the world other than myself: a helping hand extended to someone else’s struggle, the dazzling galaxy just discovered millions of lightyears away, the cardinal trembling in the tree outside my window. We know this by its mirror-image – to contact happiness of any kind is to be dissolved into something complete and great, something beyond the bruising boundaries of the ego. The attainment of happiness is then less a matter of pursuit than of surrender – to the world’s wonder, ready as it comes. – Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness
Back Story
For some time I had been looking to ground my photography and give it some, what you might call, “emotional nature”. In 2008 I had been out making my early morning rounds around the Northeast Avalon taking seascape photos as I usually did at the time and had a chat with a man I met at Signal Hill. He told me he was at a local office building and had seen photos on the wall of some of the city’s characters we’d see around town when we were boys and I thought it was so cool. I remember many of them, everyone unique and with their own stories, style, and personality. Some, you could call local celebrities because everyone knew who they were. Even though this would be outside my comfort zone I thought I’d give it a go and set out to take photos of today’s characters around town. I continue to photograph many of the city’s characters and eventually began to photograph buskers and people from all walks of life. Over time I have developed a substantial portfolio of more than 1,500 Newfoundlanders. Many of my favorites you can see here.
Personal Work
Brian’s personal work includes Director of Help-Portrait St John’s which held 12 events in the city from 2010 to 2018. These Help-Portrait events where held at local community centres, St Pats Mercy Home and the Janeway Children’s Hospital. Other work includes: working with Easter Seals, Good Life Kids Foundation, Children’s Wish, Special Olympics and others. He presently leads an event called “The Portrait Project”. Brian has been working on his street photography, which you can see on this website, since 2008.
Who am I?
Brian has been a photographer for more than 30 years, most of those as a professional. He is a native of St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada and lives there with his family.
