Paul Couvrette

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Ottawa Photographer Paul Couvrette
Ottawa Photographer Paul Couvrette
Born	June 22, 1951 Ottawa
Nationality	Canadian
Field	photography
Influenced by	Yousuf Karsh Arnold Newman Ansel Adams

Paul Couvrette is a Canadian photographer based in Ottawa. He has been recognized as the Canadian Photographer of the Year, Ontario Photographer of the Year and Ottawa Photographer of the Year. He is one of a select group of Ottawa photographers who has earned the title Master Photographer from the Professional Photographers of Canada.

1 Early Life and Career
2 Relationship with Malak Karsh and Yousuf Karsh
3 Work
4 Awards and Achievements
5 Footnotes
6 External links

[edit] Early Life and Career

Couvrette discovered his passion for photography while completing a journalism degree at Carleton University. The school provided him with unlimited access to the darkroom where he educated himself^[1] on film development and exposure. Soon after he graduated in 1974^[2], he left Canada with a backpack and his Nikon F camera to travel throughout Europe. He also spent a year working at the world’s first camera store in London, England, Wallace Heaton (est. 1837) consulting high-end customers such as Roger Vadim, David Bowie, Princess Anne, Peter Ustinov Princess Margaret and the Sultan of Oman.^[3]

Upon his return to Canada, he began writing articles and providing photographs to a range of Canadian publications, primarily as an art critic. Eventually he realized that he was destined to be a photographer and his writing faded into the background. It did not take long before he found himself shooting a hundred weddings and bar mitzvahs a year. In order to balance this “wedding factory effect”, he decided to concentrate on shooting clients that were seeking “something special”^[4]. As his reputation grew, he soon found that his portfolio filled with pictures of countless celebrities, politicians and business icons. His wedding clients included celebrities such as Michael and Marlen Cowpland, Michael and Veronique Potter and Chief Justice Barbara Mclachlan. His portrait clients include hundreds of Judges of the Supreme, Federal and Tax courts, Chief Phil Fontaine, Romeo Dallaire^[5], Allan Rock, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Architects Douglas Cardinal amd Barry Hobin, Ottawa billionaire Terence Matthews, Actors Rick Mercer and Paul Gross, Marion and Paul Dewar, radio host Lowell Green, Pat Rinaldo, Entrepreneur Mac Brown, Simon Reismann, Premiere Joseph Handy, Papal Nuntio Luigi Ventura, Paul Cellucci United States Ambassador to Canada and numerous Ministers of various Federal, Provincal and Municipal governments over the span of the last 30 years including every Mayor of Ottawa since 1975.

Originally, Couvrette operated his business from his home, but with the speed that he gained popularity, he soon needed a larger studio space. Consequently in 1994, he purchased a 4000 square foot building in Centretown Ottawa, and hired a full-time assistant and an office manager. ^[6] Centretown Ottawa boasted 17 professional photographic studios at the start of Couvrette`s career and by 2005 his Gladstone Avenue operation was the sole studio operating in the city core as a hi tech recession and cutbacks in government spending along with the increasing leasing costs in the city core forced most photographers to operate from their homes or seek other careers. Couvrette studio began a secondary business in 2002, renting its facilities to photographers and film directors including Brian Adams, Flare Magazine,the Dove Real Women campaign and served as a backdrop to the Rolling Stones video Streets of Love.

[edit] Relationship with Malak Karsh and Yousuf Karsh

Couvrette was a personal friend of both Karsh brothers. Yousuf Karsh was the person who realized Couvrette’s talent in portrait photography and encouraged him to develop his skills in this area even further. Yousuf Karsh referred Couvrette numerous clients upon winding down his Ottawa operation.

In year 2000, Couvrette photographed Malak Karsh for an editorial on his work. This photograph was later presented to Karsh during an event honouring his life long work of world renowned commercial photography. During this event, Couvrette was chosen to make the opening speech and to present Karsh with this award. Karsh later wrote in letter to Paul Couvrette:

It was truly wonderful and kind of you to give me the pleasure and honour of your presence at the Nepean Public Library Event. Your kind words leaves me proud of our profession, especially when they come from such a highly accomplished, respected and accomplished person as you are.

Paul Couvrette is also the only photographer who has the legal rights to use Yousuf Karsh’s photographs in his seminars and workshops.^[7]

[edit] Work

It would be an understatement to declare Paul Couvrette as a generalist, since he is skilled in many photographic disciplines. Actually his images are of diversity unparalleled anywhere in Canada, with awards bestowed in every conceivable classification. Accordingly, the artistry of Paul Couvrette is best portrayed as “creative photographer extra ordinare”.^[8]

Couvrette’s work has been featured in videos, album covers, posters, books and DVDS. He has created over 200 magazine covers ranging from Time and Macleans to Ottawa Life. His work is featured on Canadian stamps and Federal Government websites. He is the only photographer in Canada who has carried out portraits of every Canadian Prime Minister since Pierre Trudeau^[9], the Canadian Space Team and Time’s Canadian and International Man of the Year.^[10]Couvrette is known for his extensive work in product and fashion photography which has appeared in Châtelaine, Flare (magazine), In Style and Vogue (magazine). His studio staff photographs weddings and story telling family albums on location and take pride in dramatic studio portraits of business executives, models actors and children ^[11]. His favorite subjects are ordinary people regardless of their fame or wealth, some of whom travel from across Canada and the US to Ottawa for his sessions.This is one of the reasons Mr. Couvrette was chosen as one of the top 50 citizens by Ottawa Life magazine for three consecutive years. Another is his support of numerous local charities by donating his services to their causes. Among the charities are the Ottawa Youth Orchestra, Thirteen Strings, Watercan, the Ottawa Humane Society, CHEO, PBS, United Way, the Canadian Cancer Society, The Ottawa Tulip Festival, RIDE, MADD, and the Kidney Foundation. Recent projects include his support for the campaign to locate the National Portrait Gallery in Ottawa as well as his role as a board member of Photographers for Peace. Peace

Paul Couvrette is often recognized as one of the fathers of digital photography in Canada. In 1991 he realized the extraordinary potential offered by digital technology and purchased a prototype film scanner. Couvrette was one of the first Canadian photographers to embrace this new technololgy and consequently became the National Spokesperson for Agfa, the world leader in scanning technology.^[12].

“Images of dreamlike distortions and unexpected arrangement of matter characterize the digital creations of Paul Couvrette”^[13]

Paul Couvrette`s influence on the medium and on contemporary photographers ranges from his art criticism in a range of international publications, his lectures across North America and his mentoring of numerous successful photographers in his own city. He has been featured and quoted in numerous magazine and newspaper articles and videos and has appeared on over 25 television interviews on his craft. Couvrette has testified on behalf of copyright reform before Parliamentary committees and has individually lobbied various Ministers of the Crown and Prime Ministers in support of photographers rights^[14].

[edit] Awards and Achievements

Paul Couvrette is the only Ottawa Master Photographer who is officially accredited to judge photographs in both United States and Canada. Couvrette has received numerous national and international awards and has been named the Canadian Photographer of the Year by the Professional Photographers of Canada. His work is in the Loan Collection of the Professional Photographers of Canada, the Professional Photographers of America and has traveled as far as China to tour the world. He has lectured across Canada and the USA and his assignments have taken him from the Arctic Circle for Time to Silcone Valley for Nortel.