Elements of a Man's Work - Dylan Young - SHARP - Aug2010

8/6/2019 Elements of a Man's Work - Dylan Young - SHARP - Aug2010

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ONLINE SHARPFORMEN.COM SEPTEMBER 2010

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F A MANOR

Workthats work in the sense of voca-

tionis an odd sort of concept.

Even in our age of enlightened

maculinity, work constitutes a sizeable

amount of our self-worth. How uniquely

proficient we are, how valuable the work

is, the access, or station, or revenue it

brings us, all of these things are tallying

points in some dearly guarded scoring

system of personal success. And, all toooften, our very manhood is measured on

that count. After all, its damned hard to

feel like a man if you dont believe youre

doing a mans work.

But what is that reallya mans work?

What makes one project a job, or a

grind, or a drudge and another a calling?

The great Samuel Butler said that every

mans work, whether it be literature or

finance or advertising or architecture, or

anything else, is always a portrait of him-self. If we take that to be true, then the

most important thing about a mans work

is that he like what he sees in that mirror.

The three men in this piece dont

know each other. They work in differ-

ent fields, they come from different

backgrounds, and they want different

things. Still, they all share something in

common. They followed paths that were

distinctly their own and, in doing so,

theyve let their work take them to theextremes of experience.

PROSPECTOR. A BUSH PILOT. A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER.

HREE MEN WHOSE WORK REGULARLY PUTS THEM IN

ARMS WAY TALK ABOUT WHY THEY DO WHAT THEY DO,

ND WHY THEY WOULDNT DO ANYTHING ELSE.

BY DYLAN YOUNG

F A MANORR


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If a handshake says a lot abouta man, what it says aboutScott Walters is that hes solid.Maybe that doesnt sound like ahell of a lot. But to the peopleWalters works withthe oneswho leave their dreams in his

hands, the ones who trust him with their

millions, and the ones whod follow him intoa mine drilled into the side of an Ecuadorianmountainits more than enough.

Over the last 17 years, Walters has builthimself a reputation as a sharp and steadyhand in Canadian mining investments. Hiscompany, Max Capital Marketsa ven-ture capital firm specializing in precious

metalshas brokered some of the mosttalked-about deals on Bay Street and not justbecause he makes folks money. People sim-ply like working with him.

One of the reasons people have so much

faith in Walters is how he goes about hiswork. Hes paid his dues in the industry,and it would be easy enough for him keephis ass glued to a perfectly engineered Her-

man Miller chair and run deals from his of-fices on the 29th floor of Commerce CourtNorth, in Torontos financial district. Butthats not what hes about. Hes a hands-on

venture capitalist. Whiffling the corners of aquarterly report doesnt do anything for him.If hes going to recommend an investment,he wants to lay his hands on it firstand dighis heels into soil.

That kind of attitude has put Waltersin some hairy situations. There have been

shakedowns and a mudslide; hes even hadto fend off packs of feral dogs.

Im a firm believer in boots on the ground,Walters says. I want to see how a project is

run, make sure the conditions are good forthe workers, make sure the works are beingmanaged well. Before I put my heart intosomething, I need to trust that its a good set-

up and theres no way you can do that withoutgoing out and seeing it for yourself.

And, if sometimesall too frequentlythat exposes him to some sort of danger,then thats just par for the course. In fact,

at this very moment, hes recovering froma head trauma and a spinal injury. Hes notwearing it now but a neck brace has been aregular accessory to his wardrobe for morethan a month. It was a close call.

The funny thing is, Ive been in someof the most dangerous situations you couldfind yourself infloods, earthquakes, down

mine shaftsIve been in a plane we had toland on a highway in the middle of a thun-derstorm in Panama, driving trucks in Peruon one-lane roads with 3,000-foot drop-offs.And how do I injure myself? Go-kartingwith my kids.

The irony of that isnt lost on me, headds. You cant spend your life avoidingdanger. Thats no way to live. You get hurt.

You heal. You keep going.If youve picked up on the hint of grit

a kind of cowboy stridein Walters at-titude, youve hit on the right parallel. He

comes by it honestly and he proved him-self early on.

When he was 17, he got a job withNoranda doing geological surveys up north.You should not confuse this with the daintypursuit of rock collecting, however. Walterswas a big guy even then, and he had to be.Hed start his day at 6 a.m., hop in a heli-copter and get lifted to a desolate location,where theyd leave him by himself all day.

They wouldnt even land, he says. Theyjust hover and toss you into the bush. Id have achainsaw, a rock saw and a shotgun. Id spendthe day clearing a line through the brush, cutinto the rock layer for samples and, if a bearappeared, Id do my best to scare it off.

The shotgun had a birdshot shell that youd shoot into the ground to shoo themaway. If they kept coming the next coupleof shells were slugs. Thankfully, I never got

past the first shell.So, tromping through the jungles of

Guyana, Colombia, or Panama, prospecting

for the next big metal deposit, thats just anatural evolution for the man. And his will-ingness to put himself in the thick of it hasbeen the key to his success.

So, when hes all healed up, does he fancy

putting himself in harms way again?Definitely, Walters admits. I dont know

any other way to do what I do. Id be missingout on too many fabulous experiences notto continue working this way. The key is tofind a balance between doing that and beingthere for your family.

I only learned how to do that in the last

few years but its the most important lessonIve ever learned.

SCOTT

WALTERS


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Theres a growl, a gust-

ing whine of enginesthat wipes out the voiceon the other end of theline. Emmanuel Anassisis a lot of things. Rightnow hes a racing en-

thusiast. Actually, that isnt quite accurate.Emmanuel Anassis isnt just an enthusiasthes a successful quasi-pro racer. He and his

team have won three championships andset a number of speed records. Whats trulyimpressive though is thats not even what hedoes for a living.

I admit Im a bit of an adrenalin junky,he says. But a very significant part of why Istarted racing was to promote my aviationwork, thats what its all for.

Born in Athens, Anassis emigrated to

Canada when he was just five. He might nothave known it then but that first skip acrossthe pond would guide his steps for the next 40odd years. The undertaking started gradually,

a trip here and there, a sightseeing jaunt in aCessna 150 over Kitchener-Waterloo.It had entered my psyche in a way I

never forgot, he says.Before long, he was siphoning every cent

he earned into flying lessons, propellinghimself up the ranks as fast as he couldhewas going to be a pilot even if he had to killhimself in the process.

He got his first flying job in 1984, asa first officer for a commercial airline inGreece. It was glamorous and comfort-ableand it paid decentlybut it got

boring really fast, Anassis says. It wasso routine. Youd stop by Dispatch, push

a few buttons, a half-hour later youd besipping coffee with the stewardess, watch-ing the clouds. Theres a thoughtful pause,then he adds, I know Ill catch a lot offlack for saying this, but its a lot like beinga glorified bus driver.

Anassis needed a challenge and thats ex-actly what he found when he signed on topilot for a small charter company in north-ern Quebec. I was flying small turbine

aircraft to distant and harsh locations, hesays. You fly to places like the MagdalenIslands in winterdoing approaches intoisolated areas with no visibilitythatswhen you know how good a pilot you are.

It was as far away from the airline experi-ence as he could gethed become the avia-tion worlds version of an outdoorsmanand it suited him.

In the '90s, he hit a pocket of turbulence.The charter company went out of business.Along the way, hed gotten married and hisfirst daughter had just been born. Work

was hard to find.Destiny called when a friend tapped himto start flying relief missions into the Sudanand Somalia. His bush pilot experience wasin perfect sync with the work. The bulletswere something new. The first time some-one puts a gun to your face, everythingchanges, Anassis says. Its a completelyphysical reaction. Your body freezes, yourhairs stand on end.

The hardest thing to explain is howcommonplace it gets. Youre trying to flyinto these completely shut-off areas, bring

people food and medicine. And there areall these factions vying for power, arming

drugged 10-year-olds with AK-47s. Andyou get used to that.

Anassis got used to many things no oneshould have to get used to. Hes paid for hissuccess and his spiritual rewards in blood.Hes been shot on six different occasions,been held hostage in a pit, and witnessedsuffering on a scale so huge that it seemsbeyond belief.

I remember flying into this camp

where there were tens of thousands ofrefugees. There was all this smoke hov-ering over the field. It was so thick youcouldnt see the ground. As we came infor the approach, we realized they were

vulturesa cloud of vultures. They liter-ally blocked out the sky.

After flying on contract for a while,Anassis started his own remote-area opera-tions company, DAC Aviation. His planes

now fly into the hottest landing zones inAfrica, Afghanistan, or any place otherpeople wont go. And hes a constant star in

the relief sector, with close ties to the UN,UNICEF and other organizations.There is a definite sense of mission be-

hind my work. Its hard not to think aboutall the people you cant help. So you try todo as much as you can, even if it puts you

in danger.During the height of the African con-

flicts of the 90s, Anassis estimates that hisplanes helped to feed and treat millionsof refugees. And he continues to supportthose communities, by building businessesthere, training local people and investing

in them. So that someday they wont needthe help.

EMMANUEL

ANASSIS


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L

ouie Palu is hunkereddown at an encampment

in the Kandahar regionof Afghanistan, tappingout answers to an emailinterview he agreed to

do for a magazine backin Canada. Hes taking his timetrying toanswer the questions thoughtfullybuttheres still an element of urgency.

Any moment now, he could be scram-

bling towards a helicopter with 40 kg ofphotographic equipment strapped abouthim and the stiff collar of a flak jacket keep-ing his head on straight. Hes been ghostinga US Army MEDEVAC unit that servicesthe region, going where they go, whereverand whenever the hell theyre needed.

But for now, hes writing about where it all

began, 11,000 km away, in Toronto, Ontario.His family was from the northeast of

Italyland of polenta, he calls it. His fa-ther was a stone mason and his mother agarment district seamstress. From an earlyage, he was taught the value of hard work.There was also an emphasis on taking timeto experience the world around him.

FROM: LOUIE PALU

LOCATION: KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN

DATE: JULY 22, 2010

When I was young, my father took me up

north a lot, mostly on fishing trips (includ-ing ice fishing on Lake Simcoe). I spent manyweekends up on the Bruce Peninsula aroundOwen Sound and Wiarton, walking throughthe bush to experience the wilderness.

Palus first job was as a BiWay stock boy,earning $3.10 an hour, three days a week.But before long, he was doing part-time site

work with his dad.

I moved on to working construction with

my father, beginning around the age of 14.That taught me the value of how to earn

money the honest and hard way. I had a lotof attitude and thought I was real smart. Iwasnt. Mixing cement every day, carry-ing stone and brick, smartened me up. It

gave me a sense of reality. My father was agreat (and patient) life mentor and teach-

er. Thank goodness he is still around tocontinue kicking my dumb ass.

He used the money he earned to buy cam-era equipment. Right from the start, hedbeen an avid painter and illustrator. In hisearly teens, photography became his domi-

nant mode of expression. The interest inphotojournalism came a little later.

A girlfriend gave me a book on British pho-tojournalist Don McCullin. He worked forTheSunday Times in the UK and had covered nu-

merous conflicts, including the Vietnam War.Although the first images of war that caughtmy attention were Frederick Varleys and Paul

Nashs paintings of World War 1, seeing Mc-Cullins work changed my life. I knew one day Iwanted do the kind of work he did.

My deep interest in history soon had medreaming of witnessing and documentinghistorical events with my camera.

His first real breakthrough was working ona series shooting in the mines of northern

Ontario and Quebec. Cage Calltook nearly

15 years to photograph and edit, and wasmade into a monograph. It was a passionproject that gave him the confidence to takehis work-a-day photos in more daring andchallenging directions.

The work he does now, photographingsoldiers in Afghanistan, has earned him a

number of awards and accolades. But thatsnot why he does it. This is just the most re-cent evolution of Palus craft and his needto tell the untold stories.

I focus on stories and subjects that are forgot-

ten, ignored and need attention. Social and po-litical issues that make me feel like something

is wrong or requires wider discussion. I alwaysoperate with the same thoughtrespect formy subjects and sensitivity for what I am see-ing and photographing. It is not about me. Itsabout the people and story I am covering.

Afghanistan is one of the most significant

international conflicts since World War II.The war is more than a counter-insurgency,it is the longest running conflict the US andCanada have ever been involved in.

For a long time, this was a forgotten war, I first came here in 2006. Its strange to seeall these journalists coming here for the firsttime. Its 2010 and they are just realizingnow that there has been a war in Kandahar

for years. Empires have been marching inhere for centuries, only to face brutal condi-tions with tragic consequences. Alexander theGreat founded the region, now its known as

the Graveyard of Empires"....

Palu will be leaving Afghanistan soon, butwill continue using his lens to tell the sto-ries that need to be told. Exposing himselfto such hardship and violence, one mightbe tempted to think hes a bit of a dangerseeker. But, as with Walters and Anassis,the truth isnt as simple as that.

Joseph Conrad once said that, althoughhe didnt like work, he liked what wasin itthe chance to find ones self, onesrealitywhich no other man can know.

Thats what these men have done. Theyvemade their own realities and come to termswith them. Thats the lesson for the rest ofus. And maybe, finally, thats what it meansto do a mans work. Maybe.

I cant imagine wanting to do anything elsebut Im not attracted to risk or adrenalin, oranything like that. A job needs to get done and

I do it. Its simple and undramatic, I am re-warded by what I do. I feel like I am using mytalents and skills to contribute something to theworldif only a very small part.

Theres no romance in it, but I love doing it. LOUIE PALU

LOUIE

PALU

for a gallery of louie palu's photographsvisit sharpformen.com


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Elements of a Man's Work - Dylan Young - SHARP - Aug2010

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