(no subject)
i met the most amazing guy the other day.
he is moving to town, and after reading a story in the star about him, i contacted him and asked him if he would consider doing a story with me when he moved to town
he called me minutes later (after i emailed him) and asked me to come to his house in toronto, because it wouldnt be the same in his new house
im so thankful i did.. he was so right.
his house is like a museum
i havent been able to dabble though my interview yet, because it is so much.. but here are a few highlights from the Tor Star article:
"Leonid Brezhnev is listing.
Onnig Cavoukian straightens the framed photo of the one-time Soviet leader on a basement wall in his North York bungalow. "I have a medal from Brezhnev upstairs," he says.
What?
Talking to Cavoukian is a series of "what" moments.
"My parents died within 12 hours of each other. It was very romantic ...
"See this accordion? My father's. He was a musician as well as a photographer. The second time King Farouk got married in Egypt, he was one of the entertainers at the palace ...
"I snapped these pictures when I caught Maggie ... Mrs. Trudeau relaxing with her boys when they were tiny. The other woman? That's Pat. Richard Nixon's wife ... "
By the time he gets around to how Armenia made him an honorary general and, when he couldn't bring home a real machinegun, gave him a glass one full of brandy, it seems the most natural thing in the world. Here, after all, is the booze-gun, his general's epaulets and several high-ranking officers' caps.
Cavoukian, 60, is a portrait photographer, the third generation to use the professional name Cavouk. His subjects, some shot as his father's assistant, have included the Queen ("nice but distant"), Queen Mum ("so warm"), countless heads of state and religious patriarchs (there's a papal medal somewhere from Paul VI), jazz pianist Oscar Peterson (on the wall between Indira Gandhi and Pierre Trudeau) and former lieut.-gov. Lincoln Alexander.
"Linc made me an honorary Hamiltonian, right here in the living room. I knelt on the floor and he `knighted' me with this glass sword.""
........
Cavoukian's house - small on the outside but somehow endless when you walk through the door - is his studio, darkroom, archive and museum. And home. It's where he grew up.
But money talks and he's moving out at the end of this month, upping stakes for a brand-new place in the Stoney Creek/Grimsby area with Lake Ontario at the front door and a conservation area at the back.
Cavoukian had a "what" moment of his own when a property developer called and asked if he wanted to sell his house. "I said, `I'm not interested.' Just before I hung up, she said, `If you ever did ... well, just say a number.' I picked a figure out of the air: `$1 million.' And here I am. I couldn't say no."
........
Cavoukian's grandfather, Ohannes, a painter-turned-photographer, escaped the 1915 Armenian massacre in Turkey and moved to Cairo. Artin and his wife Lucie brought their three kids to Toronto after Egypt's King Farouk was forced to abdidate. Onnig's brother is Raffi, the children's musician and his sister, Ann Cavoukian, is the Ontario privacy commissioner. What's giving him most pleasure right now is that his son Sevan, "my little boy," has just been hired as a pilot by Air Canada Jazz.
........
He charges $500 for a sitting and between $50 and $2,500 for a picture, depending on the size.
.......
Everything in the house - from the Dresden statue of Napoleon on horseback to the grand piano - is going to the new place. The chairs, the framed photos Cavoukian shot from the backseat of an Armenian MiG jet fighter, the cut-glass vase his father was given after the Brezhnev photo session.
-----
The guy was fascinating to meet... I was so glad I went.
He was so friendly too.. I offered to show him around town here, and introduce him to some people.
He sent me home with two old-school LPs by Raffi (his brother) for my girls
anywyas.. i could go on forever.
this is what i love about my job.. the hours blow, the pay sucks... but the people I meet and the opportunities I get.. blow me away
... well off to the other end.. the late hours - planning meeting tonight :(
he is moving to town, and after reading a story in the star about him, i contacted him and asked him if he would consider doing a story with me when he moved to town
he called me minutes later (after i emailed him) and asked me to come to his house in toronto, because it wouldnt be the same in his new house
im so thankful i did.. he was so right.
his house is like a museum
i havent been able to dabble though my interview yet, because it is so much.. but here are a few highlights from the Tor Star article:
"Leonid Brezhnev is listing.
Onnig Cavoukian straightens the framed photo of the one-time Soviet leader on a basement wall in his North York bungalow. "I have a medal from Brezhnev upstairs," he says.
What?
Talking to Cavoukian is a series of "what" moments.
"My parents died within 12 hours of each other. It was very romantic ...
"See this accordion? My father's. He was a musician as well as a photographer. The second time King Farouk got married in Egypt, he was one of the entertainers at the palace ...
"I snapped these pictures when I caught Maggie ... Mrs. Trudeau relaxing with her boys when they were tiny. The other woman? That's Pat. Richard Nixon's wife ... "
By the time he gets around to how Armenia made him an honorary general and, when he couldn't bring home a real machinegun, gave him a glass one full of brandy, it seems the most natural thing in the world. Here, after all, is the booze-gun, his general's epaulets and several high-ranking officers' caps.
Cavoukian, 60, is a portrait photographer, the third generation to use the professional name Cavouk. His subjects, some shot as his father's assistant, have included the Queen ("nice but distant"), Queen Mum ("so warm"), countless heads of state and religious patriarchs (there's a papal medal somewhere from Paul VI), jazz pianist Oscar Peterson (on the wall between Indira Gandhi and Pierre Trudeau) and former lieut.-gov. Lincoln Alexander.
"Linc made me an honorary Hamiltonian, right here in the living room. I knelt on the floor and he `knighted' me with this glass sword.""
........
Cavoukian's house - small on the outside but somehow endless when you walk through the door - is his studio, darkroom, archive and museum. And home. It's where he grew up.
But money talks and he's moving out at the end of this month, upping stakes for a brand-new place in the Stoney Creek/Grimsby area with Lake Ontario at the front door and a conservation area at the back.
Cavoukian had a "what" moment of his own when a property developer called and asked if he wanted to sell his house. "I said, `I'm not interested.' Just before I hung up, she said, `If you ever did ... well, just say a number.' I picked a figure out of the air: `$1 million.' And here I am. I couldn't say no."
........
Cavoukian's grandfather, Ohannes, a painter-turned-photographer, escaped the 1915 Armenian massacre in Turkey and moved to Cairo. Artin and his wife Lucie brought their three kids to Toronto after Egypt's King Farouk was forced to abdidate. Onnig's brother is Raffi, the children's musician and his sister, Ann Cavoukian, is the Ontario privacy commissioner. What's giving him most pleasure right now is that his son Sevan, "my little boy," has just been hired as a pilot by Air Canada Jazz.
........
He charges $500 for a sitting and between $50 and $2,500 for a picture, depending on the size.
.......
Everything in the house - from the Dresden statue of Napoleon on horseback to the grand piano - is going to the new place. The chairs, the framed photos Cavoukian shot from the backseat of an Armenian MiG jet fighter, the cut-glass vase his father was given after the Brezhnev photo session.
-----
The guy was fascinating to meet... I was so glad I went.
He was so friendly too.. I offered to show him around town here, and introduce him to some people.
He sent me home with two old-school LPs by Raffi (his brother) for my girls
anywyas.. i could go on forever.
this is what i love about my job.. the hours blow, the pay sucks... but the people I meet and the opportunities I get.. blow me away
... well off to the other end.. the late hours - planning meeting tonight :(