My Dad
My Dad
Let people know you. Open up. Gain trust. Advice that’s a little tough to follow, when, as I stated in my blog: ‘It’s not about me’, I like to stay behind the scenes, support the star, and to me, the star is the images that I create. Well, that’s all fine and good Mr. Mike, but would you hire me to make a portrait? Not likely. So here we are. Further writing into the unknown. But then the next thing you read is, never let them know, keep the mystery, don’t tell the truth, don’t give ‘them’ anything to be used against you. I’m of the first camp, thanks. Life ends, might as well leave a trace. Besides, like me or not, it’s all good, but help me learn. Don’t throw empty praise. Constructive criticism please. Help me grow; help me understand. And it turns out, writing does help me understand. Understand the why, of why I do what I do. At least a little. That’s always what I’m after. And if you have any suggestions you’d like to share, please do. I have some deeply personal and private reasons for why I started creating images, which I hinted at in a previous blog, but it’s overwhelmingly complex. And it’s taken on a life of its own and is evolving every day. Photography will do that to you. They say the photograph is more about the photographer than the subject in the image. That, I fully believe. My images, I couldn’t possibly leave myself more exposed. But that is art. And as Sam Abell once said, we sometimes ‘take’ images ahead of our time. You won’t see what it means until much further on. I agree. But it certainly doesn’t make things any easier as for the understanding part. Such is life.
So, what does all the above have to do with the subject of this blog, My Dad? He’s directly a part of why I do all this photo making activity. Gordon Harry William White, my dad. You could, and may call him Gord. I just called him dad. He made movies, at least that’s what I told the other kids growing up. He was a member of the Directors Guild of Canada, District Council: Ontario, and went by many different titles: art director, first assistant and assistant art director, set designer, construction coordinator, construction manager, assistant designer, set designer, and production designer. He was a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD University), an artist, a painter, and an avid photographer. He spent his life creating. And I grew up fully immersed in this world of creation. His art studio, filled with plants and stained-glass windows, the paintings, the painter’s easel and palette covered in raw paint, the smell of the oil and acrylic paints and thinners, the colours, the art books, the sculptures and other little creations, the chessboard, the art posters, and the hundreds of National Geographic magazines. Welcome to the secret garden. What a trip! I was smitten by Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, and mesmerized by the impact of the glorious colours of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, and other beautiful paintings by John Singer Sargent. And then Vermeer, Degas, Monet, van Gogh, Rembrandt, and on and on… And to see my dad work, effortlessly sketching magic, and his meticulous drafting skills. I may not be formally educated in the arts, but I was most definitely educated (I was the rebellious youngest of five; I picked up the guitar instead of the paintbrush). And all those crazy Geographic magazines. Without even knowing it as a child, I was falling in love with the people of the world, and how these amazing photographers photographed them. Huge influence. And then there was the monthly picture show, broken-down slide carousel and pull-down white screen and all, where the family would gather around in the family room (after watching the latest episode of The Waltons, or Little House on the Prairie – yes, that’s what families did back then), and enjoy Dad’s photographic creations for that month, to the gentle sound of the carousel fan and progression of clicks: “Dad! It’s upside down!”. Life was simple back then. Most of the images were of us kids going on the many adventures we did, such as camping in Algonquin Park or sailing on Lake Ontario, taking a train to British Columbia and living there for a year as by dad made the TV series The Beachcombers. Life was fun.
But as I’ve said, my dad made movies. With titles as found in IMDb: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Stepping Out, Deceived, The Scarlet Letter, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Murder at 1600, X-Men, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, A History of Violence, Cinderella Man, and many more, and names such as: Liza Minnelli, Michael Douglas, Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Keanu Reeves, Bryan Brown, Goldie Hawn, Rebecca De Mornay, Don Johnson, Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall, Whoopi Goldberg, Gérard Depardieu, James Spader, Cate Blanchett, John Cusack, Christopher Plummer, Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Renée Zellweger, Brad Pitt, Sean Connery, Matthew Broderick, Ron Howard, and Marlon Brando. To say the least, life was an adventure back then for my dad! He would often tell the story when one day while working at one of those big stand-up drafting tables in the production studio, when up walks Marlon Brando, who reaches out and shakes my dad’s hand and says: “Hi, I’m Marley”! He would tell of sitting in on the daily rushes with these people, production crew, directors and all the interactions. I had the privilege of attending the filming of some of these productions, and time spent behind the scenes in the studio, where some very bizarre things would take place, where one of the directors (not sure which) would put together this home-made contraption-tube-thing, proceed to load it with a potato and shoot the garbage trucks as they passed by from the 3rd floor! Did I just see that?
Life’s experiences, all of it, the good and the not so good, go into the ‘artist’s’ creations, my images. It all gets mixed together mysteriously to form this expression. My dad has a small part in this expression, and I’m grateful for his and my mom’s upbringing.
The adventure was cut short for my dad by Alzheimer’s disease. Miss you.
Thank you for being here, and for your time.
October 23, 2025 Michael Gordon White