Letters Home a visual diary of Matthew Ginn's activities in Portland, Oregon, and beyond971-219-7189
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people
Sam Erickson
Another recent assignment was to photograph Sam Erickson, senior planner for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, better known as the RTA. Since the theme of the issue was health care I met Sam at the East 93rd Street stop of the RTA’s Health Line, a bus rapid transit route that runs along Euclid from [...]
Rotary Club of Cleveland
This was the first commission I received in Cleveland—a portrait of Mark Wipper (center), president of the Rotary Club of Cleveland, along with Jerry Jarzabek (past president) and Karen Melton (president elect)—shot for a local business magazine in the Nautica Complex on the Flats. Like most of my new town, the venue was new to [...]
Health research
Perrie had to stay late to conduct an experiment one evening a couple weeks ago. As it happened, I was in the neighborhood (with my camera, of course) so I stopped by to see her new office and lab. She was taking hourly samples from bits of tissue exposed to some treatment or other, freezing [...]
Guest book
Without doubt, the best thing about a funeral is that it brings family together from far and wide. When I was in Toronto a couple weeks ago for my grandfather’s funeral, I stayed at my Aunt’s house along with my brother and his family. Before they left, my nephews signed her guest book.
Investigating elder abuse
One of the last assignments I had before leaving Portland was to photograph Ashley Carroll, who is the Abuse in Later Life Project Coordinator for the Children, Youth & Families Division of Clackamas County’s Health, Housing & Human Services Department (why do local government officials always have such long job titles?). After contacting Ashley, I [...]
Oregon WWII Memorial
Apparently Oregon is one of just six states without a World War II memorial—but that will soon change. A team of veterans and other volunteers has been working to build a memorial on the state capitol mall in Salem, and it’s nearly ready. At the beginning of February I had the opportunity—and honor—to photograph some [...]
Michelle McAfee CD
Here’s a shoot I’ve been waiting to blog about for months. Way back in September, Oregon musician Michelle McAfee contacted me to do some photos to use in her press pack in support of her upcoming CD. After some back-and-forth about the type of photos she wanted and where we could do them, waiting for [...]
Sarahjoy Marsh and Jay Gregory
Playing catchup, a bit here. These photos came from an assignment for a Valentine’s Day story to photograph Sarahjoy Marsh and Jay Gregory. He is a psychologist specializing in couples’ therapy, she is a certified yoga instructor, and together the couple conduct workshops called “Learning to Love: Mindfulness, the Heart of the Nervous System.” The [...]
Kenneth Baldwin Davey, Grandpa, 1924-2013
Born July 18, 1924 in Sevenoaks, England: a Kentish Man. Served in the Corps of Royal Engineers in World War II, followed by a career as a quantity surveyor. Married Magda Lowy (1926-2010) in 1947. Moved to Kingston, Ontario, in 1957 and Toronto in 1965. Died March 6, 2013, in Toronto. Leaves behind three children, [...]
Ken Eshelman
Ken Eshelman has been on staff at the Fund for the Public Interest for nearly two decades. Never heard of the Fund for the Public Interest? You may have seen or heard from them, but not known it. To understand what the Fund is, here’s a bit of history: In the early 1970s, public interest [...]
Getting to know Cleveland
As you may know, Perrie and I will be moving to Cleveland in a few weeks. I’m really excited to explore the city, meet people, and get to know my way around. When we were there last weekend, I had a couple hours to walk around downtown and of course I brought my camera. I [...]
Carol Johnson
Here’s a story I photographed recently about Carol Johnson, a woman who makes art with dried flowers. She gives most of her work to Women of Purpose International, a Portland-based Christian organization supporting and empowering women in their relationships and through their spiritual gifts. Carol, 61, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her 20s, and [...]
Jonathan House
A few weeks ago, I photographed the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Portland Community College. We made some nice portraits of the players and coaches but, as occasionally happens, my favourite was one of the test shots. This is Jonathan House, the fine photographer who helped me with the shoot, simply standing in for [...]
Jeanie Butler
For many of my assignments, I don’t know much about the subject (or the details of the article) in advance, and don’t have much control over the location of the shoot. I typically have a brief phone conversation with them to set the time and meeting place, and try to get some kind of idea [...]
Judy Donovan
I recently had an assignment to photograph Judy Donovan, the vice president of the Beaverton Historical Society. Her love of Beaverton history is personal as well as academic: Judy is a direct descendent of the Denney, Fanno, and Vose families, who were among the first to settle in Beaverton. Several roads, creeks and schools are [...]
Toll House on the River Road
Back at the beginning of October, I got an assignment to photograph Portland art dealer Yves Edmond Le Meitour and his new painting, “Toll House on the River Road Between Lake Oswego and Portland.” Back in the early 1980s, Le Meitour tried to buy the 1884 painting by Cleveland Salter Rockwell, but the owner wouldn’t [...]
Pepe Rafael
I often write here about the fascinating people I get to photograph, but Pepe Rafael really stood above the others. Pepe, leader of the band Pepe and the Bottle Blondes and member of several other groups, is a natural entertainer. How’s this for a resume: after quitting school at 13 to work as a welder, [...]
Floral arrangements
A lot of people contributed their talents and connections to help Perrie and me put our wedding together, but perhaps foremost among those was Perrie’s sister Valerie, who offered to provide and arrange the flowers. Friday afternoon, while we were off delivering the wedding cake to the venue, Valerie and a team of helpers descended [...]
Little Big Burger and Boxer Sushi
Here’s a clip from an assignment I did for Oregon Business a couple months ago, along with some of the out takes. I was sent out to photograph local restauranteurs Micah Camden and Katie Poppe at their flagship Little Big Burger store in the Pearl District, as well as their new restaurant Boxer Sushi. It [...]
Change of expression
It’s amazing what a slight change of expression can do for a portrait. The man on the left could be Santa Claus in the off season; the man on the right could be tired of his neighbor’s reindeer pooping on his lawn. Of course, neither (to my knowledge) is true. Both are, in fact, Richard [...]
Into Calgary
Though it wasn’t intentional, our recent visit to Alberta (see post 1) coincided with the Calgary Stampede. And not just any stampede: this year was the centennial stampede, so everybody was going over and above the usual fanfare to put on an extra-special show. I read somewhere that the first stampede parade, in 1912, drew [...]
More horsey business
As mentioned previously, Perrie’s dad and stepmother keep two horses on their property. I don’t remember what Rojo’s story is, but Shirle used to ride Gracie for dressage, and later jumping, if I remember correctly. Anyway, most of the property is devoted to the horses and related things, like barns, hay storage and manure piles. [...]
Naturalists
As much as I enjoy exploring the world on my own, it’s even better when you’re in the company of an expert: a geologist or a local historian, for example, because they can point out and explain so many things that you’d never see. A few weeks ago I got to walk through Smith & [...]
No bitching
I was a bit bored one afternoon a couple weeks ago, and it was a really nice day, so I decided to head down to Pier Park with my camera to see if there were any skaters there. Here’s what I found.