Steve Russell

During tiff, The Toronto Star hosted an event at Roy Thompson Hall the featured a photo display called “Capturing TIFF”, they asked us to supply some of our favorite photos or moments covering tiff.
This was one of my favorites, Kim Novak came to town for the anniversary of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Vertigo, Miss Novak gave us an exclusive by letting us meet her at the airport, it was a super fun meeting, I did a little pop and drag to kind of give a little bit of that vertical feeling to the image.

TIFF Canon Canada Toronto Pearson

Moonrise from the boat launch.
Mer et Monde
Quebec

Mer et monde écotours Bonjour Québec Canon Canada

Rest in peace, George Chuvalo.
My favorite story about the legendary boxer. It’s not what he did in the ring, but what he did with the camera.
From 2009,

From 2009,

It was leaning up against the wall in Ken Faught’s office.
A black and white picture in a 16x20 frame.
Why I had gone into the Photo Editor’s office that day in August was forgotten as I looked at the picture.
“Nice picture, Ken, yours?” I asked.
“Nope, a reader dropped it off,” Ken answered, “Guess who?”
The image of a man sleeping, well, more passed out, on a small bit of cloth under a sign painted on a building declaring “The King of Good Times” was strangely beautiful.
A great example of street photography.
The photographer, who was inspired by August’s Big Picture Feature, took the picture off his wall and brought it down to the Toronto Star hoping that the paper might use it?
No other than World Boxing Hall of Famer, George Chuvalo.
This touched me more than anything. George is a man whose life has been chronicled in front of a lot of cameras, his boxing days and later in life, family tragedies claimed three of his sons and his first wife.
The idea of George picking up a camera to chronicle life, and doing it well, I took as a compliment to my profession.
The King of Good Times
George Chuvalo was on holidays with his wife Joanne in Goa, India.
As his wife shopped the market place in Margao, George wandered around the same Marketplace when he stumbled across this “poor soul, sleeping on the thinnest of blankets”
That Sunday morning George was carrying his Minolta x-370 camera with a 45 mm lens loaded with some black and white film when he came across the man sleeping under a sign that read “Kingfisher, The king of good times”
Chuvalo’s first thought was,“Holy Crips, that is the opposite of the King of Good Times!”
He took a picture of the man, framing him up with the sign.
Chuvalo likes the black and white film because it’s “more stark and more emotional and more real and dramatic, especially for that type of picture, it captures the mood perfectly.”
Chuvalo, whose friends, some in AA, admire the picture when they drop by the house, says, “This is a tragic picture, an awful picture about life, this guy was sleeping on the smallest and thinnest piece of blanket. After I shot the picture I felt guilty as I walked away, I should have slipped a sawbuck in his pocket”

The hands that rained down so much pain to his boxing rivals dwarf his Minolta X-370.

Chuvalo started taking pictures with a Pentax camera in the early 60’s. He also had the occasional chat with legendary Toronto Star Photographer Boris Spremo about photography.
“I drive people nuts taking pictures,” Chuvalo confesses.

A few other pictures that he is proud of, although he is unsure where the negatives might be, are a security guard at an old amphitheatre in Croatia, the guard was half asleep on a chair with his pistol half out of his holster.
A picture of a friend jumping from a balcony to his balcony at a hotel, 27 floors up.
A picture of his son Jesse when he was 8-9 reflected on a table.


georgechuvalocanada Canadian Boxing Federation Konica Minolta Canada Canon Canada

One of my favorite red carpet locations at tiff is the Royal Alexandra Theatre, where we can incorporate the lights by the entrance into photos, it also gives us some usual moments like Margaret Qualley getting one last hair adjustment before hitting the Park carpet.

TIFF Mirvish Canon Canada

I always felt that the Photographer’s pens at tiff were crowded, until I looked over at the autograph, seeking fans!

TIFF Canon Canada

One of my favorite tiff assignments this year had to be photographing Anna Lambe and Tantoo Cardinal after they interviewed each other. Their conversation throughout the photo shoot with each other was so good and poignant.

Anna Lambe TIFF Canon Canada

Vladimir Guerrero Junior connects for his first home run at home this season!

Toronto Blue Jays Professional Baseball Photographers’ Association (PBPA) Toronto Star VLADIMIR GUERRERO JR MLB ⚾

Vladimir Guerrero Jr looks at an iPad of his last bat between innings.

Toronto Blue Jays Professional Baseball Photographers’ Association (PBPA) MLB ⚾ Toronto Star Canon Canada

Relentless!
Perfect word to describe Rudy Martin Jr. who after 12 years in the minors and DFAed twice this year is called up from the Buffalo Bisons.

Buffalo Bisons🦬 Toronto Blue Jays MLB ⚾ Rudy Martin Jr. Canon Canada

Most photographers will fall into two camps about this front page picture, while most of us strive for a cover Photo or a A1 Photo, many of us are either cringe or are amused when we end up in a front page photo or cover photo.
Personally, I fall into the cringe group, my face is best suited to behind the camera!

Toronto Star TIFF Cole Leighton Burston Carlos Osorio 🇸🇻 🇨🇦 Evan Mitsui chris young