In the early'70's, Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba, was a fantastic place to be, and anyone who was lucky enough to have been there at that time will never forget the experience. I was one of the people who had the good fortune of being on the BU campus from 1973-1977, and the memories of the time spent there couldn't be more vivid in my mind. I met some sensational individuals while out there, I'm in Ontario now, and their names and faces are as clear in my mind as when I met them some forty years ago.
I was also privileged to have photographed some of the most beautiful women on campus back then. I had some experience in the medium before arriving at BU, and was shooting for the Quill, the student paper, and the yearbook. Some of the women approached me to have their portraits done, and I approached many of them because I wanted to stay current on photographic techniques, and simply because I wanted to photograph them. And, to say that they were beautiful is no exaggeration...Theresa Lee, Kitty Reese, Eleanor Thompson, Judy Rottman, Marie Gross, Myra Amy, Carol Justice...and the list goes on.
But, I never photographed Jennifer Black. As a matter of fact, I never even met Jennifer Black. I almost did, several times, but, something always got in the way. I was having supper with a friend in the university dining hall one evening when she came in and sat at the table across from us. I asked my buddy who she was, and he told me her name, and I told him, at that time, that I was going to ask her to sit for a portrait.
Jennifer Black was strikingly good-looking. She had shoulder-length, dark hair, and a soft, warm smile, but, it was her eyes that drew you to her. When Coots and Gillespie wrote the line, "You intoxicate my soul with your eyes," in their 1938 song, You Go to My Head, they were thinking about Jennifer Black. With the warmth of her smile, charming and inviting, she could caress you, but, with her eyes, intriguing and mysterious, she could leave you tongue-tied.
I couldn't wait to point a lens at her...to see what the Spring sunlight would do to her hair and her face. But, the eyes are the focal point of any portrait, and Jennifer Black's eyes wouldn't leave me alone. What secrets would they reveal as she glanced downward or to the side, or looked directly into my lens? What would they say about her that her smile or her voice weren't saying? That's the dynamic of portraiture, and that's what I would discover. Unfortunately, I never did.
More than once I started to her room in McMaster Hall to introduce myself and ask her to sit for me, but, I always managed to get distracted. I would run into someone en route from Darrach Hall, where I lived, and end up going in a different direction. I looked for her several times in the dining hall or the cafeteria, but, never saw her there again. She graduated from the education program at BU in 1974, and I don't know where she went after that. I left Brandon in 1977 with very few regrets, but, never having photographed or met Jennifer Black was right at the top of the list.
So, Jennifer Black, with the captivating smile and the mysterious eyes, wherever you are, I hope life has been good to you.
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