Benoit Côté poses with abandoned machinery on the site of a closed asbestos mine in Thetford Mine September 3, 2009. Côté worked 40 years as an asbestos miner. Photo Francis Vachon/ THE GAZETTE

The portraits where made for a Gazette article on « La Grande Noirceur », a dark era in the province of Quebec dominated by the clergy and Maurice Duplessie, a Premier with an iron fist.

My day spent in Therford Mine hunting for stock photos paid of to find a great location.

Diane Ippersiel, a McGill University graduate who manages a firm called Une affaire d’Anglais in Quebec city. Photo Francis Vachon for McGill News Alumni Magazine.
Technical: Canon EOS Mark III, 1/320 at f9 with a 24-70 at 46mm – ISO 200 + one direct flash camera left

When you look out for new clients, don’t only look on the magazines you see on the stand. There is a ton of magazines that do not target « normal » consumers that you would never imagines they exist. Twice I did a job for a magazine called « Metal Cutting magazine ». It’s hard to be more specialized than that!

Nuclear physician Dr. Norman Laurin, V.P of the Canadian Association of Nuclear medicine, poses in his office in Trois-Rivieres August 13, 2009. Photo Francis Vachon for the Globe and Mail

Story (and another photo) about isotope production crisis on The Globe and Mail web site