Meet The Photographer :: Dave Green
Self-portrait, 2023 © Dave Green
DAVE GREEN INTERVIEW
MF : How has photography transformed you as a human being? What are the key differences you can identify before and after starting photography?
DG : I really can’t remember a time before photography. My first camera was a Kodak Duaflex II which I got as a young boy. My parents were both avid amateur photographers and they bought me my first 35mm for my twelfth birthday, a Miranda with a 50mm lens. From then on I was good to go, taking pictures of anything and everything I could.
MF : How is your personality reflected in your work?
DG : I’m a restless person, I can barely sit still and I think that shows in my pictures. I’m most content when I’m on the road or going somewhere and photographically I work best when I’m in unfamiliar places. For a while I had a motorbike, which suited me perfectly because I didn’t need a reason or a destination to ride. That bike and a good camera were my perfect traveling companions.
MF : Which photographers have significantly influenced your artistic vision, and how can you see their impact in your work?
DG : In the fall of 1982 I started studying photography at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Toronto Metropolitan University) and my friend Doug Adderley showed me a copy of Robert Frank’s, The Americans. That book changed my life and really helped me understand the way I was looking at the world. The way the world could be looked at. I still gravitate towards photographing the cultural icons like those that Frank saw - the jukeboxes, barber shops, the late night bars and lonely highways. To visually search for humanity in our own bleak landscapes. Another book I got my hands on around that time was Pictures From the New World by Danny Lyon. Danny Lyon crafts images so well and tells fascinating stories with his photography and accompanying texts. I revisit both of these books frequently to this day, they are masterpieces. One of my mentors early on was the American photographer Dave Heath. Dave was a lonely and tortured man, a rather damaged human being. His photographs were and are pure poetry, probably in no part because of this. We had a difficult and often confrontational relationship but I still think of the man and those conversations, so I would consider that to be a significant influence.
MF : If you could have dinner with one of your favorite photographers, who would it be, living or deceased?
DG : I think it would be fascinating to have met Dorothea Lange. To have her describe what it was like to photograph during the great depression and to hear her travel adventures while working for the Resettlement Administration and then later the FSA.
The Tasty Restaurant, Bloor Street West, Toronto, 1988 © Dave Green
MF: Name 3 of your favorite books on photography.
DG: Aside from The Americans and Pictures From the New World which I already mentioned, I would say Walker Evans At Work, Dave Heath’s, Dialogue With Solitude and Mary Ellen Mark’s, Streetwise are three of my favourite photography books. Books about photography though? The best I can think of would be Mirrors and Windows by John Szarkowki. It’s a brilliant essay that explores the difference between self expression and documentary exploration in photography. It’s interesting to imagine where I fit in between the two with my own work. I think the answer to that is actually different depending upon which picture of mine you are looking at.
MF : Who are the top 3 bands/artists currently on your music playlist?
DG : I tend to still listen to whole albums on CD a lot at home, The Replacements album For Sale: Live at Maxwell’s, 1986 is currently in the player. I do use a streaming service when I’m driving - my daughter Emily got me listening to Amyl and the Sniffers so they have been on the car stereo a lot lately. Aside from that, Lucinda Williams and Tom Waits have always made good driving companions.
One night at The Cameron House, Toronto 1987 © Dave Green
MF : What are you looking for in a great picture?
DG: It has to have those visual qualities that make you pause, and hopefully to make you want to look at it more than once. It should capture the humanity of the moment, whether it's a street shot or a portrait of a friend. Robert Frank is quoted as saying: “When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.” I think this is absolutely perfect and I could not say it better.
MF : How would you describe your unique style in street photography?
DG : I don’t actually consider myself a street photographer. It’s really a relatively new term, at least I don’t recall coming across it when I was studying photography. I think documentary photographer or perhaps photojournalist would have been what we called someone who shot mostly street work, but those terms don’t fit well either. I have always described my work as sort of personal documentary, when I’m forced to define it. I shoot in the street, but I also photograph portraits of people that I know and people that I meet. There are streetscapes, landscapes. It’s not just a single genre. That being said, I photograph a whole lot in the street because people and places fascinate me. I feel that it is important to make a record of things before they disappear forever.
MF: What strategies do you use to remain inconspicuous while capturing candid moments?
DG : When I was younger I wasn’t a very inconspicuous person, so I never even tried. On occasion that really worked to my advantage - I got some interesting reactions if people saw that they were being photographed. Now I’m just another older guy and people don’t always notice the camera until I’m done doing what I want. I did get yelled at the other day by a big guy in a pickup truck though, so it doesn’t always work. A small fast camera has always been a huge advantage - I’m a fan of rangefinder film cameras and their digital equivalents.
MF : Are there any specific themes or areas you'd like to explore further in your photography?
DG : I plan on continuing to do exactly what I have been doing. I’m currently looking for a publisher for my next book. I have a large body of work I want to get out there for people to see.
The Rio Theatre on Yonge Street, Toronto, 1981 © Dave Green
