The Photographer

April Dawn Plett

Duncan McNairnay

1. April Dawn Plett
2. TIE Leif Norman/Joey Senft
3. Dwayne Larson

It is easy to see why so many voted April Dawn Plett as their favourite photographer. If you have never seen her work, you are missing out (go look right now! www.aprilplettphotography.com). Looking at her photographs, you see the true beauty of this world. Her work as a whole has a distinct style, a creative identity formed by an eye for beauty and a wizardry with the intricacies of photography’s technical side.

Plett, who is based in Winnipeg and grew up in Steinbach, got her first camera when she was fifteen, but before that she was finding other ways to take pictures. “When I was a kid my dad owned an auto body and a car dealership, so he had a polaroid camera that he would use to take pictures of all the cars,” she says. “I would sneak into his shop and use entire packs of film just taking pictures of the dandelions and the clouds.”

It took her awhile to realize that this love of photography was a calling for her, not just a great hobby enjoyed by others. “I just did that at that time, never really thinking I liked it more than other people did,” she professes.

“You know all the ‘80s and ‘90s kids, they have that dream to work in a record store or skate shop? When I turned 17, I got my dream job which was equivalent to those - I got a job at a photo shop.” 

Plett does headshots and weddings, but does not have a specialty. “Because I like a life of variety, I’m willing to take on anything that anyone will hire me for,” she says. However she does have a favourite muse - landscapes, and dabbling in astro-photography (taking pictures of space). “It’s an entirely different realm of photography.”

Part of the series: The Uniter 30

Published in Volume 68, Number 14 of The Uniter (December 4, 2013)

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