“I camera in peace.” David Three Rats, The Crimson Time
I thank Patricia for asking me to take publicity pictures of her, for forcing me to step out of my safe place and do that which no longer comes naturally. Neither of us are the lithe party-animals we used to be and it takes courage on both our parts to go through with this. We’ve had three shoots in the last four years and Patricia has always been a darling, setting the date, getting hair done in the morning then greeting me with smart drinks at lunchtime before we head out to location, and footing the bill for noshes afterward. In short, she makes sure we always have fun. It’s not for me to judge the results but over the last couple of years some of these pictures have appeared in national and local newspapers and hey, that’s the purpose of publicity shots, to help promote. Patricia’s vampire novels are among the most wildly unpredictable things I have ever read. She contends she just writes "pulp" though I would point out that, as far as pulp goes, the Crimson series is daring, unique, peopled by a loveable cast of characters and blessed with a grand sense of humour and generosity of spirit.
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I admire artists who do not take themselves too seriously. Helmut Newton, he of the leggy models shot poolside, candidly described himself as “a seducer and entertainer”, while the great Richard Avedon freely admitted his compelling portraits were more about himself than his subjects. The last word goes to a much lauded and respected 18th-19th Century American portrait artist, who described the pitfalls of capturing a likeness thus: “A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth.”John Singer Sargent (painter of the infamous Portrait of Madame X)
DTR, September 2010, Ottawa
You are welcome to reproduce these media images. Kindly remember to give appropriate credit to my photographer David Three Rats. I thank you for enduring my gallery of acute narcissism. It pains me to display images of myself but I have begrudgingly accepted that writing is not only about writing. Promoting your image is also a necessary evil, like huckstering novels. Contact me for the full image sizes, which will be emailed to you in JPEG format.
