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PAGE 29

HOWARD Fry could have been a graphic artist. Or
a furniture designer. But instead, he has become a
craftsman of the camera and one of the finest
fashion photographers Vancouver has to offer.

Fry is the winner of two
Western Canadian Magazine
awards for his editorial
photographs in Vancouver
magazine, and the recipient
of numerous American
awards for his fashion
photography for Nord-
strom’s department
store in Seattle.

One could say Howard Fry
knows how to fashion a pic-
ture that sells and says much.

But it wasn’t always that
way.

Graduating from  Man-
chester College of Art, Fry,
at 23, left England and mov-
ed to Vancouver in the sum-
mer of '67 via a hot, muggy
sojourn in Montreal,

Because there were few
jobs for graphic artists in
Vencouver at the time, Fry
becmne an assistant to a
photogapher friend who
came from England.

HAPPY SNAPS

Apart from taking “happy
snaps"’, the only other time
Fry had ever picked up a
camera was for a final term
project in college.

Deciding to do a calendar
on car racing, he chose to do
ii in photography. Using a
wide angle lens on a Nikon
camera, Fry remembers
crawling underneath — cars,

poking the camera down car-
buretors and exhaust pipes,
shooting shiny hubcaps and
racing helmets, and thinking:
“Gawd, it’s easy to take
groovy pictures.”

He still considers them ‘ta
phenomenal set of picures,’’,
but Fry a self-taught
photographer, learned the
hard way that taking pictures
wasn't a snap.

BEER ADS

His first photography
assignment was to shoot a
skiing scene at the top of
Whistler Mountain for a beer
ad.

They travelled to the sum-
mit, where he ended up waist
deep in snow and freezing,
after jumping off the tractor
which brought the crew up
top.

“T was so cold!” recalled
Fry. My hands were so cold
that my gloves were sticking
to the camera. My eyelids
were freezing to the
viewfinder so I couldn't see
through it.’

When a camera gets cold,
explained Fry, the lubricant
inside starts freezing up and
the shutter speeds will go
awry.

RRSP \

13 - Sunday, January 19, 1986 - North Shore News

“Tf was freaking out. |
didn’t know what [ was doing
up there in the first place.’’

But he continued shooting,
doing what the art director
wanted, and just kept his
fingers crossed the pictures
would turn out. They did.
And the client was happy,
but that wasn’t the end of his
ordeal.

On the way down, loaded
with equipment and frozen
suff, Fry fell off the chairlitt
and slid half-way down the
mountain. By the time, he
made if to the bortom the bus
had left without him.
Miserable, cold and
discouraged, Fry hitched a
ride back to Vancouver.

Now when he shoots out-
doors in the cold, Fry says,
he is prepared.

Fry stuck it out, and soon
after, anoart director at
Eaton's hired him.

ASTUTE GUY

“He's a pretty astute guy
because in many ways
photography suits me much
better than graphic design,”
remarked Fry.

His clients agree.

“Poam oa great Fry fan,”
said Duane Prowse,
marketing manager for
Woodward's stores. ‘He has
had a profoun.t effect and in-
fluence on the perception of
the buying public.”

Yet he can’t be pigeonhol-

See Fry
Page 15