Faith Amour (Singer, Composer)

I was photographing an event at Toronto City Church one evening when Faith came up to the stage and introduced herself as a jazz singer. From the moment she started singing, my camera was laser focused on her- I knew I was witnessing something and someone special.

Eventually we connected over social channels and Faith has since become a good friend and art mentor of mine. In the numerous shoots we’ve worked on together, the one thing that I always tried to capture was her confidence. She performs with such allure and talent yet never shows any timidity or nervousness. Her passion for her musical craft is so apparent it draws in crowds no matter the setting. The ability to foster an atmosphere that allows participants to slip into another reality for a moment, perhaps into a memory or a fantasy, is something reserved exclusively to masterful artists, of which Faith Amour can most definitely be identified with. I recognize that most of my portraits of Faith are filled with drama; I look forward to having her back in the studio to focus on the incredibly fun and loving sides of the human being she is. I’m incredibly honoured and humbled to be a part of Faith’s life and artistic journey. If you haven’t listened to her music yet, today is the day!

Keisha Bell-Kovacs (Composer)

“I like weird,” she says to me as I stand with arms crossed looking down at her keyboard. We had already shot Keisha playing the keyboard and walking around her keyboard but we needed a fresh, non-cliche take to these music-themed portraits. Dealing with a composer, I felt the need to play with the composition as much as a musician might play around with a melody.

“What if I get down on the floor, UNDER it?” she asked. That was our ticket, our new perspective. Placing her on the ground, and later her keyboard, would bring a sense of child-like wonder and play (and perhaps a more abstract aesthetic), something that I really sensed from Keisha the short amount of time I’d known her. We took some formal standing poses for the sake of it but the real winners were always the ones that involved play.