- Al Woodcock
- April 21, 2021
North Hill has a way of sometimes engaging the residents in activities that benefit everyone. For several years I have been working on the quarterly magazine, The Hilltop. One of my responsibilities is creating a back cover with photos of my choosing, generally on a theme. I have tried to stayed away from the usual pictures of happy residents standing in a line. You know the type? One issue featured all the trucks that come to North Hill and what they tell us about the sort of residents who live here. Another issue looked at the architecture…not the gracious curve of Crescent Heights, but the hardware that makes this place tick from fire hydrants to drain pipes. I got a lot of blank stares with this one!
Sometimes, though, I do find a subject that includes residents. In an upcoming issue, I have a series of photos taken in our art gallery that was featuring painting of life sized people by Ann Strassman, a professional artist. At first I had a couple of my friends come in and mirror the poses of some of these individuals. This idea evolved into having the live residents and the people in the paintings interact in some way. Some residents felt comfortable doing this, others did not. I finally had a casting session one afternoon where anyone interested could pose for me with their favorite work of art, and I encouraged them to think up an interactive pose. One did an elbow bump with a very unhappy lady. Another resident argued with a man who was not wearing a Covid-19mask and in the process started to put one on him. One can only imagine the result of this encounter. We also had a couple of dog models, and I learned it is not easy to get a canine to interact with a painted pigeon that is motionless and does not smell like a pigeon should. In the end, I had over 70 residents and team members and 6 dogs pose and several hundred shots to choose from. Here are a couple of my other favorites:
