It is with deep sadness that family, friends and colleagues mark the passing of Bruno Schlumberger, street photographer, photographer for The Ottawa Citizen, and consummate artist. With a dry wit, an insouciance for uncomfortably contorting his body in order to get “the decisive moment”, and 6 National Newspaper Awards to his name – more than any other Canadian photojournalist – his legacy lives on in patient photos and stories of his irascible personality.
Says friend and classical flute street performer Thomas Brawn, who brought his passing to PAL Ottawa's attention:
'I was the focus of Bruno Schlumberger's lens many many times. That very first time, I honestly did not know what to think. I felt he was a just another pain in the ass. I was making zero tips while he was fussing and posing and cussing en français and waiting for "la lumière parfaite". It wasn't exactly a warm day. Finally he demanded 'try too loook a leetle beet warm pour moi', and that was the photo. '
4 National Newspaper Award-winning photos by Bruno Schlumberger
The Ottawa Citizen's Bruce Deachman shares in his article on Schlumberger that 'for more than three decades, Bruno wandered the city’s streets in search of angles, colour, lines and reflections — essentially looking for the ideal background for a photo whose subject he had not yet found. Then, having constructed the perfect scaffolding, he would wait for the moment when something entered the frame and electrified it, turning an urban still life into a fleeting piece of theatre.'
Bruno died this past March at age 77 after being diagnosed with ALS last year. He chose MAID in order shorten his and his family's suffering, a decision which Deachman states he characteristically made without fanfare or sentimentality.
The song he chose to go out on was Daft Punk’s electronic instrumental Veridis Quo, linked here.
