#profoto

Model: Vilma

by Marko Saari

VOIVOD Montreal 1989

Sometimes I forget how ambitious I was when I was young. I had sold a portrait or two from the film festival to the Village Voice in the fall of 1989 when Edna Suarez, their photo editor, called me from New York to ask how hard it would be for me to get to Montreal to shoot a band. I didn't tell her that it was no small trip given Canadian distances, but I wanted the job really badly, so I mumbled something about taking the train and got the assignment to photograph Voivod, a heavy metal band from Quebec who had just shifted from noisy thrash to a complex prog metal that would give birth to a whole subgenre. I got the phone number for the band's manager and arranged a day for the shoot, then got on the phone with VIA Rail. (Canada's Amtrak. Keep in mind this was the pre-internet world, and my only other option would have been going to a travel agent or down to Union Station to book a ticket, which I'd have to do anyway to pay for my fare once it was reserved.) I was on an overnight train from Toronto to Montreal - over eight hours in a coach seat, but thankfully they didn't charge for baggage, and I would be bringing most of my studio with me - two cameras, light stands and the ProFoto ProAcute 6 strobe kit I'd just bought with money I'd inherited after my mother had died.

Voivod are, in my opinion, one of a half dozen really original bands that have come out of Canada. (Also on that list: Simply Saucer, NoMeansNo, Death From Above 1979.) I'd liked them since early, abrasive records like Rrröööaaarrr, and wasn't the only one intrigued by their new, prog-ier direction, as they'd caught the attention of the music critics at the Village Voice enough to warrant a feature in their end-of-year Pazz & Jop poll, for which I was providing the photos. I arrived in Montreal early on a Saturday morning to find that the city had just been blanketed by a snowstorm. I hauled all my camera gear upstairs from the Gare Centrale to the dining room of the Queen Elizabeth hotel for breakfast, to wait for Voivod's manager. He showed up just as I was finishing, and helped me carry my gear to his car, and we set out for the band's rehearsal space in a big complex out in a Montreal industrial suburb. Everyone seemed baffled but flattered that a New York magazine would send a photographer all the way from Toronto for a photo shoot, but I scoped out the room - your standard stark cube in an old warehouse building, with windows high on one wall and egg cartons covering the other walls to provide cheap acoustic insulation.

I worked hard to deliver a lot of options from my photo shoot with Voivod in their Montreal rehearsal space. Thankfully I had the luxury of time and subject who were, most of the time, engaged with the task at hand. I also lit the hell out of it, using all three of the heads in my strobe kit to provide everything from flattering soft light, moody "horror movie" light from below, and hard light shooting almost directly into my Nikon F3 to make the lens flare. I had the band pose in the usual, full-length band shots, looming above me as I kneeled on the floor, and huddled together screaming their lungs out. But my most successful set-up was composed with my new Rolleiflex - the band lit from above against a backdrop of egg crates, looking up into the light as if they're about to be raptured, or abducted by friendly aliens. That was the one I was certain that Edna at the Village Voice would like the most, and I was right. (I'd prove it to you if I could find the tearsheets which, I fear, may be long lost.) I definitely lost money on the gig after paying for cabs to and from the train station, my ticket, and breakfast at the Queen Elizabeth. But I seemed to pass the test and continued to get work from Edna for several years, first at the Voice and then at the New York Times when she moved there. Voivod are still together, and released Morgöth Tales, their 16th record, last year. Sadly guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour died of colon cancer in 2005.

NINETEEN

Charley was born 19 years ago today on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 in Olympia, Washington. He would have been 19 years old today, but passed away August 4, 2021, a few months after his 16th birthday. He lived a long, happy, joyful life, experiencing new adventures daily and making friends wherever he went. He loved people, dogs, cats and other animals. He loved riding the subway in his travel bag and getting out at some unexplored destination — a park, store, or neighborhood — as much as returning to places he knew well. I miss him a little more every day and think of him throughout each day. I always stop for a moment at 7:06 pm, which is the time he went to sleep for the last time, and will never wake from. I’m glad I was able to have him in my life, making every day richer, happier and more fun than it would have been without him. I took these photos on May 29, 2008 — two days before Charley’s third birthday. Upper West Side Manhattan, NYC