321 Image-Content of the Day 2019/01/10 of-by patrick wey https://blog.patrickwey.com/category/image-content-of-the-day
Rock sky, water and land in fire sun
A man alone on a path where all is one
Vernon Harper, New Mexico, his favourite hat from the day.
Image circa 90’s from the Urban Elder CBC Doc by patrickwey
145 Image-Content of the Day 2018/07/18 of-by https://blog.patrickwey.com/category/image-content-of-the-day\
A mixture of lit past caught in a realm of space. Time sits quietly in the walls. The story is folding over itself, myths are emanating from the mood, a texture of love is diminishing in the corners, worlds are falling all around, everything is concealed. The statute takes the lead, the dance begins again.
Vern knows..
Circa 90’s….gallery of the infinite….( Vernon Harper )
Image and Writing by patrick wey
127 Image-Content of the Day 2018/06/30 of-by https://blog.patrickwey.com/category/image-content-of-the-day
Vernon Harper standing in front of a store entrance reflecting a sunny side of Queen St. W. near Spadina Ave. Toronto of a shop called Red or Dead. Vern was a great actor, seldom did i suggest much other than a location and he would just take a pose or two and i never wasted time. I seldom let people wait uncomfortably while i grabbed a few images. I usually had the composition worked out and moved into a few angles with a variety of lens lengths and occasionally added some colour shots from a second camera; but all quick, not to have the subject feel uncomfortable, awkward and throw on strange expressions. It’s got to be natural for these portraits to portray something that laymen’s words seldom express….possibly a poets words can shape a Picasso like angle across the terrain but it is still not a pure comparison for a great portrait, just different.
Vern was proud to be Red, but it goes much, much deeper than that. The reflection of the city was always behind Vern, his walk was focused forward into a red horizon.
circa 1990’s
#82 Image-Content of the Day 2018/05/16 of-by https://blog.patrickwey.com/category/image-content-of-the-day
I am afraid Vernon Harper never got to see many of these images, but many he did and i am sure he remembered the numerous moments we wandered around town together as i photographed him under so many circumstances. The only person i had documented so thorough in my life was my daughter Sierra Kachina whom passed away three years ago and also never got to see many of the photographs i took of her. Vern said, ‘often in life, you don’t get a second chance’. I had the strong urge to call Vern a month ago, and minutes turned into weeks and again a wake-up-call now lies sad in my heart. I have often thought of a book to find a home for many of these images but time and money has not allowed this to come together….perhaps now i can attempt to make this happen, if the ‘mystery be willing.’ Vern definitely did ‘live before he died’.
circa late 80’s early 90’s off spadina ave, toronto.
#80 Image-Content of the Day 2018/05/14 of-by https://blog.patrickwey.com/category/image-content-of-the-day
Vernon Harper…..lived a long good life…rip
#79 Image-Content of the Day 2018/05/13 of-by https://blog.patrickwey.com/category/image-content-of-the-day
Vernon Harper I remember so many moments with Vern. We travelled to sweats in the prisons, across canada and the states. I spend one full day a week with him in Toronto for years when he worked for the Native Legal system and we’d go to healing circles, asian lunch on Spadina, pick up a boxing mag in a little store on Bathurst, be together and talk about everything under the sun, many personal conversations about his past and struggles within the dominant society’s ways. Vern was a very sincere man and though i have not been with him for years he has been in my heart since the day we met. He encouraged me to document that past of his live through-out the late 80’s and and 90’s. The original of this image was taken in his sweat lodge. It feels appropriate now knowing he’ll be conducting sweats on the plains of the spirit world and enter our minds for many years to come. My heart feels for his family and the inner and outer circles of his life. Vern has brought peace to many a weary heart.
#78a Vern Harper
Vernon Harper passed away this morning. He meant a lot to many people from all walks of life. I wrote this song in the 90’s about Vern and he wrote the last few lines, “he is a free man”….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRMcW3w1htE
Thanks Vern for all you’ve done for me and so many others. Goodbye friend. You’ll be greatly missed.
