Who is Jack MacAulay and what does he do? Well, among other things, I am a retired high school teacher; I have a degree in geology and mathematics; I’ve been married twice and have four children; I was born in northern Saskatchewan and grew up in Ottawa, the son of a career army officer; at one time I was a junior officer in the reserve armed forces; I was the founding president of Waterloo Self Help, an agency to serve psychiatric patients; I have been a big fan of Miles Davis since I first heard his music in 1960.
So what am I doing with the classic view cameras?…Well, I like to reduce the subject materials to their simplest form. Also, I like to expand how we see abstraction in photographs.
More to the point, I take pictures with 4″x5″ and 8″x10″ view cameras, lots and lots of pictures. By the current paradigm, I make quite small b/w prints from 4″x5″ and 8″x10″; contact prints up to 11″x14″ enlargements. I believe that small prints have a lot of aesthetic presence, rather than the histrionic presence of large prints.
I’ve lived in Kitchener since 1965, and shortly fell in love with the lush southern Ontario landscape. My photographs are taken in all seasons, but I have a special interest in winter photography. My teachers and mentors Howard Bond, Stuart Nudelman, and Norman Rothschild have given me a lot of coaching, for which I am very grateful. Although photography is a medium based on technology, the important part of my background are the people.The arts community in Waterloo Region is a growing and vital one. My fellow photographers are not my competition; I see us as all being in this together.
Winter landscapes! The Quebec chansonnier Claude Leveillee said it best. “My land is not a land. It is a winter!” From my childhood in rural northern Saskatchewan through my sojourn on the Polar Continental Shelf Project, to my continuing festive visual romance with Ontario winters, it has been a blast!
My lifelong battles with schizophrenia and depression have led to the seeking of solace in the countryside. My visual immersion in the land often lead me into a state of serenity and wonder. The scenery communicates with me on an emotional and intuitive level rather than a reasoned and logical one.
Jack MacAulay,
Kitchener
