Excerpt
Foreword
by Wayne Rostad
On the Road Again ... Again
The very first time I met Andrew Clyde Little he was carrying a camera. What impressed me
was that it wasn't just any old camera. It was a Leica. I knew right away the man was a serious
photographer.
It was 1987 and Andy had just transferred from CBC Montreal to CBC Ottawa to join our
On the Road Again television team as a field producer. It was a very exciting time for
all of us. We were just embarking on our new show, a travel odyssey that would take us to every
nook and cranny in the country, celebrating the stories of wonderful, everyday Canadians. Not
only were we about to capture their lives on video, Andy was about to capture them on film with
his Leica.
On the Road Again has been on CBC television for fifteen years now. Andy was with us for
the first five years, the formative years, and during that time was seldom without his camera. I
discovered he not only loved to take pictures, but also printed and developed them himself in his
own darkroom (another characteristic of the serious photographer). Soon, his 8 x 10 glossies were
covering the walls of our On the Road Again offices, eventually spreading to the lobby of
the CBC building on Lanark Avenue in Ottawa. In fact, we found his pictures so captivating that
when our show celebrated its tenth anniversary on the network we called upon Andy to enlarge several
of his photographs to poster size to use as a backdrop on the set of our television special. So when
McClelland and Stewart approached me several years ago to write about my experiences hosting On
the Road Again, I knew where to look for pictures. Several of Andy's photos were included in my
book.
During that time, Andy was making other inroads with his work. A photo essay based on some of the
characters from our program appeared in the magazine This Country, Canada and was nominated
for a National Magazine Award. With this encouragement, he began exploring the possibilities of a
book of his own to feature the pictures he treasured so much from his On the Road Again days. I'm
very happy he did that. The pictures and essays in this book portray some of the memorable people
from the early years of our show and I am thrilled that its publication coincides with the fifteenth
anniversary of our program. Thanks for the gift, Andy. What a wonderful way for us all to visit your
favourite memories on the road, again.
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