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Written
by Lois
Siegel
©Photo
by Lois
Siegel
Brigitta
von
Dulong
For
decades
she has
taken
photos
of the
prominent
and
famous,
the
ministers
and
justices,
and
those
who make
Ottawa
and the
federal
government
work.
Brigitta
von
Dulong
was born
in 1932
in East
Germany
near the
Baltic
Sea.
When the
Russians
invaded
at the
end of
WWII,
she and
her
parents
fled to
Holstein,
Germany
in a
horse
carriage.
After
graduating
from
high
school,
Brigitta
went to
Sweden
to work
as an
'au
pair'
(nanny),
and it
was in
Stockholm
where
she
began
her
professional
exploration
of
photography.
Artistic
talents
ran in
the
family.
Her
great-grandmother
and
father
were
amateur
photographers.
Her
mother
and
three
sisters
were
painters.
"But I
couldn't
paint
for
anything
in the
world,"
Brigitta
laughs.
"I
started
photography
at
14-years-old
with a
small
camera.
"I loved
it."
Brigitta
found
work in
a lab
developing
black
and
white
photos,
then in
two
studios:
one
specialized
in
pictures
of
children,
another
focused
on
glamour.
She also
took a
night
course
in
retouching
photos.
Brigitta
learned
by
watching
and
doing.
In 1957,
she
immigrated
to
Montreal
where
she
worked
at a
studio
run by
George
Nakash,
an uncle
of
Yousuf
Karsh.
Then she
went to
Winnipeg.
"One
winter,
that was
enough,"
Brigitta
insists.
Here she
learned
how to
shoot
Jewish
weddings.
Finally
she
settled
in
Ottawa
where
she
could
cycle
and
cross-country
ski. She
found a
job with
Tsin
Van, a
Chinese
photographer.
He had
two
studios
and
hired
her to
manage
one on
Centertown's
Sparks
Street.
Brigitta
learned
about
the
business
of
photography
from him
and how
to shoot
graduation
photos.
After
five
years,
she
bought
the
studio
from
Van.
Then she
moved to
Rideau
Street
where
she
spent 19
years.
In 1988,
she
moved to
35
O'Connor,
close to
Parliament
and
photographed
many
well-known
personalities,
including
Pierre
Trudeau.
"Trudeau
just
walked
into my
studio
from the
street,"
she
explains.
"This
was in
1967,
when he
was
Minister
of
Justice,
before
he was
Prime
Minister."
©Photo
by
Brigitta
von
Dulong
Pierre
Trudeau
She also
landed
some
great
contracts
- at
Algonquin
College
shooting
all the
graduation
photos
and at
the
University
of
Ottawa
photographing
the
graduating
medical
and law
students.
"The
lawyers
drove me
up the
wall,"
Brigitta
says.
"They
argued
about
everything."
One of
the law
professors
said,
"They're
just
practicing
on you."
"But the
doctors
I
photographed
were
good.
After
they
graduated,
they
hired me
to shoot
their
weddings,"
Brigitta
smiles.
One
series
of
photos
she took
includes
six
pictures
with the
same
family
over a
period
of 30
years.
She took
their
picture
every
five
years.
In the
first
photo,
you see
the
parents
with
three
boys who
have
long
hair -
60s
style.
The next
photo is
a bit
more
sober.
When the
boys
married
and had
children;
they all
look
very
clean-cut.
Finally,
the
grandchildren
appear.
The
family
keeps
getting
larger.
©Photo
by Lois
Siegel
Brigitta's
photographic
sessions
connect
the
generations.
"It's
quite
touching,"
she
says.
"It
makes me
feel
like the
family
doctor…
over 40
years of
photographing
people."
©Photo
by
Brigitta
von
Dulong
But all
histories
must
come to
an end.
Brigitta
is in
the
process
of
closing
Studio
von
Dulong.
Immediate
plans
include
"getting
into
digital
photography
and
approaching
publishers
about a
tabletop
book
picturing
her
travels.
But I
will
miss the
people.
They
always
told me
stories,"
she
says.
She
intends
to
continue
taking
photos
privately.
Brigitta
von
Dulong
can be
reached
at
820-1576.
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