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Karsh and Cavouk.
Sounds like a Middle Eastern law firm, doesn't it?
Those are, of course, the names of photographers who need no introduction.
This morning, Cavouk, aka Onnig Cavoukian, the third generation of famous photographers in his family, was at Mississauga's Yee Hong Centre to meet with a couple of "new" old friends.
Before its annual fundraising Dragon Ball in January, Yee Hong commissioned the famous Armenian-Canadian photographer to create a Memory Gallery of some of its clients, to put a human face on the long-term care facility.
Cavouk took pictures of several Yee Hong clients with their families. The children of the seniors then provided a little write-up about their parents' lives. The gallery of 17 large portraits will move among the four Yee Hong locations.
"This was a labour of love," said Cavouk, who has taken photos of the famous from around the world..from Leonid Brezhnev to Lee Iacocca to Charles Aznavour to Yehudi Menuhin to the Queen.
"I'm a better person because I met them," he said of Emil and Elena Kerr, who have been married for 66 years. He was also speaking of José 'Pepito' Librojo, 90, who used to be quite a photographer himself.
Emil and Pepito are two firecrackers who live the Mississauga facility on Mavis Rd. They both serve on the home's resident advisory council and have more energy than you can imagine.
"You're going to be famous," Cavouk says as Kerr gets his picture taken.
"Maybe for an hour," responds Kerr.
They may not be famous, but these seniors are important to Cavouk and it shows in his pictures. As he examines his snapshots of the seniors and their families, he says, "there's a lot of love there, a lot of hope."
He talks with each subject for some time before he ever takes off a lens cover.
"For me to capture someone's essence, I have to become vulnerable in their eyes. So we talk for a while about ourselves. I have to become vulnerable in your eyes for you to let go," he says. "Once I have that trust, it's a piece of cake."
Cavouk, whose sister Ann is Ontario's Privacy Commissioner and whose brother is the entertainer known as Raffi, has very fond memories of most of his subjects.
Talking to the Queen Mother was like talking to his own grandmother. The Queen, however, was much more formal.
He remembers particularly a portrait of Senator Hubert Humphrey, then a U.S. Presidential candidate. That's because the base for a U.S. flag that was in the picture broke during the shoot and he had to kneel behind the chair, out of sight, holding it while his father took the picture.
About 20 years ago, he snapped Oscar Peterson and got the best seat in the house at a concert as a result. Peterson was leaving the country so Cavouk agreed to deliver a portrait to his sister at an Ontario Place concert. As thanks, Peterson's sister insisted he stay for the concert, which was sold out. As a result, Cavouk got a chair beside the piano, the best seat in the house.
"I went round and round for an hour-and-a-half," on the revolving stage, he laughed.
One of his Yee Hong subjects insists on a hug every time Cavouk comes back.
"It's the friendship I like and the connections you make with people," he says. "That's worth more than the money."