Bio

I started taking pictures with some level of serious intent in 1969, when I was 16. By the mid-70’s, I had taught myself to develop film, and I was burning and dodging black and white prints during late night sessions in my studio apartment, on weekends when not at sea with the navy. Unfortunately, most of that early work was lost a long time ago, except for a few fading prints without the negatives, some vintage Polaroids, as well as a single yellow plastic case of Kodachrome slides. I also have a trunkful of family and vacation pictures I took from the late 1970’s to the early 90’s, which, despite my best intentions, I will probably never have time to scan. All in all, I’ve used a little of everything from the original black & white Polaroid peel-apart roll film to medium and large format film.

In the real world, I never thought of photography as a way of making a living, but I did crave adventure, so instead of pursuing one of the traditional professions, I joined the Canadian Forces as an ROTP officer cadet, becoming a Sub-Lieutenant (Navy) after graduating in 1974 (equivalent to a Lt j.g. in the U.S). I subsequently served my ROTP commitment in the regular navy, after which I became a federal public servant, eventually heading a Secretary of State division embedded within National Defence. A dozen years later, I left the public service for the private sector and for some inexplicable reason, I also rejoined the military as an army reservist.

During that time, while freelancing as a civilian defence contractor in naval technical documentation, I fully retrained as an army logistics (transport) officer up to and including the command and staff course. That qualified me to command a battalion, but unfortunately, it never materialized due to the renal failure that put an end to my weekend warrior “career”. Instead, I ended up spending four years on hemodialysis until I received a kidney from the waiting list. It didn’t do much for my freelance work on the civilian side of things either.

Technically, I guess that makes me an 11 year veteran (4 regular and 7 reserve with several years on full-time call-out), but everything I did as a civilian was also military-related, including being a member of NATO Standardization Agreement working groups and Canadian delegations to conferences at the École Militaire in Paris, the old War Office in London and NATO Headquarters in Brussels.

I just take pictures now, mostly wherever I can walk, cycle or take public transit to in Ottawa, Canada. Not that I’m much of a photographer anyway, but all of them are photos of opportunity as it presents itself. I have no special access to anything or anyone, nor do I have pro-level equipment to do it with. It’s basically all just street photography to me.

Pierre Lachaine

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