documentographer photo blog

Hello, welcome! I'm Catherine Farquharson. I'm a professional photographer, using photography as a way to expand, connect and create.

For my clients and subjects, this means what we do is real, and fun. I shoot creative editorial portraits for publications, sometimes of well-known names like Clare Danes and Sarah Slean. I also work with emerging artists and people-of-note to-be, as we develop branding, image and feelings that photos can portray and evoke through their portraits.

As a documentarian, I tell photo-stories from all over the world, including the recent first interracial prom in Charleston, Mississippi, where my photos were published in Oprah's magazine, the National Post, NPR.com, Seventeen magazine and more.

I especially revel in covering important life experiences, including weddings, relationships, and natural lifestyle portraits. Those moments and events are what we remember and hold onto, and I am honoured by the opportunity for my photos to be the touchstone for those memories and feelings.

For me, photography of people is the capturing of their essence, and sharing back what I saw and felt. Wherever, and whomever they are. Everywhere and anywhere. Connecting, understanding and sharing.

the clouds are back where they should be…above us!

Thursday, October 8, 2009 Posted in travel

We made it!!! It’s a hot sunny morning in Moshi, Tanzania. I have now showered for the first time in 6 days, and going to the rooftop of Africa seems like a dream. (And a nightmare, depending on which parts I choose to recall!)

Before I hop on that long plane ride home, I thought I would upload some photos to share. Unfortunately, many of the pictures I want to post aren’t uploading properly, so forgive me if this seems like a scattered collection! As you can see, we walked. And walked and walked. For five days, we walked.

In fact, it was 80km that we walked from the bottom to the top and back. We walked through rain forest, moorlands, up into the clouds, and what appeared to be across the moon.

Then we climbed an old volcano called Kilimanjaro. Just to give you an idea of our schedule for the climb, we walked for 7 hours to get to the base, “slept” for 4, and woke at 10pm to start our climb at 11pm. It took us 8.5 hours to climb to the summit of 19,000 feet. It must have been -20C with the whipping wind in the darkness. We are so pleased to say that 19 out of 19 of us made it to Gillman’s point, 17 of us made it to the summit. Many of us vomited, myself included.

Somehow, despite my lungs feeling like the size of a tennis ball, my headspace being that of a burned out deadhead, and my fatigue being beyond anything I have ever felt before, I managed to take some photos.

Here we are, fortunate enough to be able to climb by moonlight alone. No headlamps! Up, up, up, we went, mini step by mini step. Every few minutes, one of us would collapse. But, with team effort, and some dragging, lifting and pulling, they found some will deep deep within, and pushed on.