Tag: photography

Saint John, 1936 | Alexander Wetherell Thorne

Union St looking east from Charlotte Street, 1936.

My great grandfather was Alexander Wetherell Thorne, and I have to admit that I don’t know a lot about him. I do have a lot of incredible things from his life though, including some stunning old photos of Saint John, New Brunswick.

My mother told me snippets about his life over the years, there were photos of him around the house, and I have his cane, but some of my favourite things are his newspapers and his photographs. Most of what I have of his are in storage, which I can’t get to right now, but I started scanning some photos of his this week and I had to share them.

In 1914 he went to war, at the age of 32, and his papers say he was already a newspaper reporter at the time. He served as a lieutenant, and when he got back, he went back to work reporting.

At some point in the 30s, he went on to work at the Maritime Broadcaster, and later, The Daily Citizen. I’m fuzzy on the details, but as far as I know, he was the publisher of the Maritime Broadcaster, and I have two giant bound books of most of his newspapers from that time.

In storage, I have a lot more of his photos, but I finally got around to scanning a few of what I did have right now, and I just can’t get over what Saint John looked like back then.

I grew up near Saint John, and we would visit every so often for shopping and things, but it was a much different place in the 1980s. Today, the city has grown and changed, but it’s astounding to see how busy it was in 1936.

I’ll share more scans when I can, but for now, I hope you enjoy the peek back at the streets of Saint John.

Union St looking east from Charlotte Street, 1936.
Union St looking east from Charlotte Street, 1936.
Looking along Charlotte Street from Sydney, 1936.
Looking along Charlotte Street from Sydney, 1936.

Photo credits: Jennette McCurdy and Christopher Heard

Jennette McCurdy

This year I’m feeling like a professional photographer, and I know how that sounds, but it’s pretty amazing to me.

I’ve been shooting since I was a kid–I still have my Spider-Man camera that I used when I was five–and I got my first paid gigs when I was in university, shooting social events for the alumni group. Even with that work, and the occasional projects now and then, my photography runs more often than not on my own website, The GATE, and while that’s professional, it’s hard to think of myself as a “professional photographer” when I’m actually employing myself.

Every now and then, something comes along to remind me that I do work as a photographer though. Last week it happened when a publicist forwarded me a story about actress and singer Jennette McCurdy for Just Jared Jr.. The publicist had asked me to take some photos of Jennette after I interviewed her for her new series, Between, and they ended up being used for the teen site, which is a great feeling when you see your work out there.

As it happens, I saved the best photo of Jennette for The GATE, which you can see here cropped up above, but there’s nothing quite like being featured on a website as big as Just Jared Jr.

Still, my friend Christopher Heard, who also writes for The GATE, pointed out to me that I do have these opportunities now and then. Christopher actually still uses the portrait I shot of him a few years ago when he was writing a book about living in the Royal York Hotel in Toronto–The Suite Life: The Magic and Mystery of Hotel Living. You can see two of the photos I shot below from a magazine feature on Christopher.

There is a lot of photography on The GATE that I’m really proud of though, and I’m lucky to get a lot of opportunities to shoot people and events that I love. Here’s one sample–check out the photo of the one and only Guillermo del Toro from last year’s Rogers Media Upfront in Toronto.

Christopher Heard at the Royal York
Christopher Heard at the Royal York