AK-Documentary-Photography

March of St. Nicola 

by Allan Kliger 

http://lensmagazine.net 

Copyright to Allan Kliger © All Rights Reserved 

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I’ve never actually met David Alan 

Harvey. 

We came to know each other several 

years back. I had become familiar 

with his work and the agency he 

works for, Magnum. He’d been an 

accomplished National Geographic 

photographer, leaving them to 

beat to his own drum. His style of 

photography engaged me. Different 

than mine, to be sure, but one can’t 

argue with his success. He seemed 

“all in”, even living with a family to 

truly document and photograph 

their lives - his “Tell It Like It Is” story. 

We had planned to meet in Rio de 

Janeiro where he was going to run 

a workshop. He and I would shoot 

together for a few days so I could 

“see” what he sees, add another 

arrow to my shooting quiver and 

push my creative eye. 

My bags were packed, camera 

batteries charged, hotels booked. I 

was excited about the trip and made 

my way to the airport. October, 2013, 

as I recall. As I was checking in and 

handing the airline counter agent 

my passport, she asked for my Visa. 

“Visa”, I replied…”I don’t need a Visa, 

I’m Canadian and heading to Brazil”. 

She looked at me, knowing the storm 

to come which was as yet unseen by 

me. “As of recently”, she explained, 

“All Canadians require Visas for travel 

to Brazil. I’m sorry, but without a 

Visa, you will be refused entry when 

you land. 

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Can you change your travel plans?”. I was 

dumbfounded. I didn’t know what to say, which, 

if any of you know me, is something that pretty 

much never happens. I just looked at her, thanked 

her for her time, picked up my bags and walked 

away. “C’est la vie”, I thought. Wasn’t meant to 

be, and so back to the office, I went, stoically 

trying to process how this could have happened. 

Back at my desk, I called David to break the bad 

news. I was expecting him to feel sorry for me, to 

commiserate and share my disappointment and 

surprise at needing a Visa from one of the most 

civilized and respected countries in the world, 

to tell me how sorry he was that we wouldn’t be 

shooting together. No such luck. No sympathy 

there, I quickly learned…”You should have done 

your homework first” he said, “should have 

looked into whether you needed a Visa”. Felt 

like I was kicked in the head while already on the 

ground, but he wasn’t wrong. I assumed that I 

wouldn’t need one, felt ticked off that no travel 

agent alerted me to the need for one, that even 

Air Canada hadn’t said anything when I booked 

my ticket, but, hey, the damage was done. Live 

and learn for the next time I wanted to head to 

Rio. 

We stayed in touch, emails and texts from time 

to time. We’ve still never met but seem to have 

established some kinship. Perhaps it’s the full 

head of hair that we both sport, or that we’re 

both mature, at least age wise. Be that as it may, 

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We both share a love of photography, of 

capturing unique moments and emotions 

- each in our own way. From time to time, 

I’ll get a message from David commenting 

on one of my images. He thinks I shoot too 

much like Steve McCurry (I’m much better 

than McCurry) or that I seem to feel that the 

exotic locales are needed for great images 

(I do love to travel and the more exotic the 

better so guilty as charged), but one thing 

David mentioned recently on one of his 

Instagram blogs (i.e. not directed to me 

personally but to aspiring photographers at 

large) was why he was presently shooting 

an assignment at home, in his own backyard 

rather than some exotic locale. 

“Follow your passions and interest,” 

he wrote. “It will show in your work. 

Editors notice these things. They also notice if 

you go running off to India or Nepal or Cuba 

to just shoot some exotic pictures because 

you think that’s what editors want. Wrong... 

You need your own voice…What matters 

is the body of work…the meat of content 

over form and over time”. And so, David 

was shooting a story in his own backyard. 

Nothing exotic to be sure, but images no 

less striking. Lighting, composition, drama, 

characters, story. All the same thought, just 

don’t have to travel far to do it. So, here’s 

my story. Shot in my own backyard. Thought 

it would be fitting for this issue to go along 

with David’s work and message. 

March of St. Nicola – Every year, late in 

June, a very special gathering takes place 

in Toronto. It’s not on any “Best To Do This 

Weekend” web site, in fact, if you’re not a 

member of the local St. Nicola Di Bari Parish 



in Toronto, chances are you’d never know about it 

all. I certainly wouldn’t have known about it I had I 

not been driving along St. Clair Avenue West one 

Sunday in June a few years ago when something 

caught my eye. I drive by the church almost 

every weekday on the way to work, and knew the 

relatively non-descript building, the church of St. 

Nicola di Bari, was there but today something 

was different. There was a large crowd gathered 

outside, even a band standing around seemingly 

ready for something, and, local politicians in their 

Sunday finery, with their medallions and ribbons, 

festooned all over their chests and shoulders. I 

pulled over, grabbed my camera, and went to 

check it out. 


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A parade was about to begin. Each 

year, about this time, rain or shine, the 

local Italian community, many of whom 

settled here after the Second World War, 

would gather to have a special mass and 

celebrate their patron saint, St. Nicola. 

Celebrate their past; celebrate their roots, 

their families, their coming to Canada 

and their great city of Toronto which had 

given them a place to call home. To give 

thanks to the present, and to look to the 

future. And so this community, many 

of whom were now elderly, were about 

to begin their celebration. It was a time 

for catching up, for warm greetings and 

embraces with their Pastor, perhaps an 

exchange or two about remembrances 

forgotten. A time for laughs among 

friends who had come from the old 

country so many years ago, and a time 

to pay homage to their patron saint. 

Proudly, and with reverence, this small 


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community would each year 

embark on the tortuous process 

of removing the large effigy of 

their saint from their church, 

place it on a large wagon, and 

pull it through their streets, band 

a’playin, for all to see. 

With local police escorts and old 

men sweating in their Sunday 

finery wondering how many more 

years they could keep doing 

this, on went this parade. When 

the heavens opened up the old 

women looked skyward, their 

umbrellas providing temporary 

relief from the downpour, 

wondering why their Saint would 

choose today of all days to rain 

on them. But on they went, slowly 

becoming fatigued as they went 

for their second circuit around 

the long block until they returned 

to their church from whence they 

came, to finish their mass, and 

await next year to celebrate all 

over again. 

So this is my story. Shot in my 

own backyard. Nothing exotic, 

no images of faraway places and 

faces. Yet drama and emotion 

nonetheless. People, their story, 

their lives. Perhaps this is what 

David was alluding to. We don’t 

have to travel far (although 

that exotic unknown will always 

appeal to me), there’s adventure 

to be had around the corner, in 

our own hometowns. Just have 

our cameras ready and, our 

curiosity about life and people 

about us, and perhaps the story 

will be there for the taking/ASK. 



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ALLAN KLIGER 

People, Portrait, Places. 

contributor 

That’s about the 

order of things for 

me. I’m drawn to 

people, to emotions 

and to experience, to 

connection and to the 

capturing of the world 

and of its people. 

I think it’s the people 

thing that draws 

me the most. Every 

photographer, every 

artist, finds their 

soul feeling most 

alive, most alert, 

when it connects, 

intersects, with that 

which somehow speaks to it. For some it’s their way 

of looking back at their life, for others their way of 

looking forward. I think my inspiration comes from 

both. The looking back part clearly comes from my 

Father. For as long as I can remember my father took 

pictures. For him, it was a way to connect with friends 

and family. Cameras with bellows, fancy sounding Zeiss 

lenses, bulb flashes that had the coolest sound when 

they popped, light meters and film, my first Brownie 

Hawkeye camera. My father was the one at family 

events who was always taking the pictures. He was 

always handing out copies of prints that he’d made 

for his friends and colleagues. I saw first-hand the love 

he had for capturing moments, of how his camera 

enabled him to connect with friends and strangers, and 

to share those moments with those he cared about. So 

I guess that love of connecting with people, of sharing 

moments with others has come naturally to me and… 

And inspired me to do more. To continue the tradition 

and to chart my own path forward. 

What do I shoot? How Do I shoot? What makes my 

images different? Well, I shoot what I love. I don’t shoot 

because I have to; I shoot because I want to. I try to 

capture the drama of life around us, the emotions of 

everyday living and to do that, I look for the light. I look 

for the drama in the light, the hard contrast and the 

soft edges, the sculpting and dimension of light that 

wraps, that molds, that shouts and that is subtle and 

mysterious. And to do this it seems that I mostly shoot 

in black & white. Don’t get me wrong, I do love color 

and, I often shoot in color. Our world’s in color. I love 

the explosion of color, the depth and intensity of color. 

But, there’s something special about black & white 

that that speaks to me. That helps me “see”, to feel. 

My friends joke about this, how I would go to India, a 

land that almost screams color, and end up shooting so 

much in black & white. It’s become a standing joke but 

in the end, the moments, the images, somehow seem 

more timeless, more magical and dramatic, leading 

the eye where you, as the photographer want, free of 

distraction. The image that I feel without even knowing 

what it actually may be at the time. 


Most who know me would say that I’m a people 

person. That probably explains why I love to shoot 

people. Portraits. More often than not in some far away 

place where I don’t speak the language. I don’t need 

to speak the language. We all connect at some level, 

we know what fight or flight means. It’s primeval. And 

so is knowing when it’s ok. When it’s safe. We see it 

someone’s eyes, in their gesture. I hope people see it in 

my eyes as I approach them. I prefer shooting outside, in 

a natural environmental. I explore, wander - that’s part 

of the adventure. Looking for the light, for something 

elusive, something perhaps around the corner, an 

open doorway, and some motion that catches my eye, 

beauty, frailty, something real. A moment, something 

that makes me want to make time stop. Perhaps it’s 

something I can identify with, even if I don’t know it. A 

feeling. 

I don’t shoot with a long telephoto – I shoot up close 

and personal. I want that connection. I’m the guy in 

someone’s face. It’s personal and the subject knows it. 

I dance around, like a boxer or a Judoka in the judo 

ring. I’m observing the light, the face, the comfort and 

nature of the subject’s demeanor and pose, waiting for 

the moment when it all comes together. Specular light, 

rembrandt light, light & shadow, depth and dimension. 

I need the shadow, the blackness, the mystery and hint 

of light and then the hard, dramatic contrast of light. 

And then, in between the shots, I find it. The connection. 

When the subject finally feels relaxed enough to let me 

see them, to immortalize their soul in the light that I’ve 

found. 

When I’m in the studio, I try and do the same thing. While 

most photographers today like the techno wizardry of 

strobes, beauty dishes and softboxes, I lean towards 

something much more traditional, more old school – 

Tungsten Fresnel Lights. Feathered light, dramatic light, 

specular light, Hollywood light, cinematic light, and 

contoured light. “What you see is what you get” light. 

It works for me. And it seems to work for my subjects – 

making them stand out from the crowd. After all, isn’t 

that why they wanted to have their picture taken in the 

first place? 

And when I shoot a story, a documentary, I shoot the 

same. I look for the people, the places, the edges, the 

light that makes the story something more, something 

to remember, to go back to time and time again. 

Thanks for reading. Hope to connect soon/Allan 

CONTACT ALLAN KLIGER: 

Web: allan kliger photography 

Instagram: allankligerphotography 

FB: Allan Kliger Fine Art Photography 

Contact: photography@allankliger.com 

Tel: (416) - 669-0647 Toronto, Canada 

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Fine Art Photography Magazine 

AUGUST 2017 #35 

DOCUMENTARY

AK-Documentary-Photography

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