Shock and awe

Caitlin Cronenberg pushing the envelope

FORMER CANADIAN IDOL Ryan Malcolm may have done very little since his 15 minutes expired years ago, but when Caitlin Cronenberg sold a portrait of her former boyfriend to Post City Magazines (yes, this Post), it launched her career as a professional photographer. So thank you, CTV.

With a new book of photography, Poser, released this month and a growing list of highprofile clients, including hot musician Lights, Cronenberg is pushing the boundaries of her craft with a creative flair and work ethic that belies her young age of 25.

Having a well-known director for a father (David Cronenberg) helps, but the young Cronenberg seems to have made up her mind to make a go of it as a photographer on her own terms, and, as it turns out, her own dime.

“It was something I had to do,” says Cronenberg. She financed the book with her “life savings,” printing 1,500 copies that will be sold off her website (caitlincronenberg.com/poser) for $45. She hopes to get Poser in Toronto stores soon.

“I feel like, if you pay for it yourself, you care that much more what happens to it,” she explains. “In the end, I wanted control over every aspect of it.”

Poser features a series of 134 nude portraits, culled from 200 shoots (first begun by Cronenberg as a class project in 2006) as well as a foreword by actor Jeff Goldblum, who starred in David Cronenberg’s groundbreaking film The Fly.

“It is less about nudity and more about trying to find a more genuine photo,” Cronenberg explains.“It is an interesting way to tell a story about a person.”

Despite her own tattoos and piercings, attire skewed to various shades of dark and a book of nude photography now to her credit, Cronenberg is as down-to-earth as they come and has an active interest in everything from cake decorating to cats.

Before her switch to photography, she studied fashion at Ryerson for four years after graduating from Bishop Strachan School in her old Forest Hill stomping ground where her parents still reside. One would think Canada’s fear-inducing filmmaker, David Cronenberg, wouldn’t be put off by some nudes photographed by his daughter, but one has to ask these things.

“Both my parents are very happy,” says Cronenberg. “I dedicated the book to them. They always knew I’d choose to do what I wanted and, whatever it was, I’d get it done.”

 

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