Jean Boulay Fine Art Photography

A Canadian photographer Jean Boulay started taking photos on December 27th, 1981, the day his first child was born. In Ottawa, where he lives, he is predominantly known for his street images, portraits and special projects with social meaning.

His current project, which resulted in a book "Mindlessly Adrift / My Streets, My Ottawa" is about street poetry, street photography and a true street poet - "Crazzy Dave Dessler." 

Dave, who lived on the streets of Ottawa, was the homeless poet - the author of the beautifully honest poetry. Soon after two of them met, they came up with the idea to publish Dave's poems and Jean's  photographs as a unique project. The book was published in spring 2008. 

This is equally the artistic and social project -   50% of the proceeds will be used to help Dave get his life back on track. Unfortunately, books sells slowly, so on Christmas Day, 2008, Dave was still a homeless poet.

Jean Boulay © Post Man

Here is what Jean Boulay says about the idea behind this undertaking: 

"I met Dave on December 9. 2006 while I was walking around downtown. Dave's portrait image I sent you earlier, which is the cover of the book, is one of the very images I took of him. Anyway, we became friends after a couple of visits and I was rather impressed with the rawness of his poetry. Essentially, I recognized that we were two "struggling artists". His other struggles, mainly how to survive on the street, where his next meal was coming from etc. were different than the everyday struggles I was having, but as artists, we were the same. We are both artists trying to get some recognition for our art forms.

Dave mentioned the idea of doing a book together, which I had thought of as well. I knew Dave's contribution to the production of a book would be zero so the workload would be all on me. It wasn't an easy decision to make because I knew, once I said yes that I would then be responsible for someone else's dream. It was a lot of work, far more than I had anticipated but well worth the effort.

It took about 1.5 years to put it all together. I would go see him at least once a week to take new pictures. I also wanted the book to be encompass all four seasons. When the book was just about done, Steve Hambling agreed to help us find a printer and front the money for the book."

Jean Boulay © Diana with a Smoke