“Bus Driver Bobby”

Every morning, Bobby Pelly goes out the door for work before the sun comes up. He checks the bus and shortly after, he heads for Route 16 to start picking up the first students of the morning. Bobby has been ferrying students to and from school for over 19 years. Although he wasn’t the driver for my route growing up, I remember him driving us to a lot of our sports events while I was in school.

When Bobby isn’t driving the bus, he’s keeping busy driving his other truck doing odd jobs all over the community, cheering the Habs on, camping with his family when it’s warm enough, or spinning a yarn with anyone within earshot (and if you’ve had the pleasure, you know that earshot radius is pretty big). I’d be hard-pressed to go through a day without meeting him somewhere on the road; always with a big wave. Even my two-year-old knows when we meet “Bobby’s school bus” on the roads. If you’ve been to Guysborough, you’ve probably seen him, too. Because I see Bobby so often in the community, it just felt right that he be one of the first I photograph for this ‘passion project’ of mine.

While I haven’t set parameters on who I’m photographing just yet, I’m enjoying the process so much. At this stage, it feels important to just archive these small-town faces in a meaningful way. We all have a camera in our pocket, but I feel like these portraits capture a depth and personality that most don’t harness with an iPhone. For that reason alone, I think these photos are important.

Do you know of someone who I should photograph? Drop me a note! If not, that’s okay! Just thanks for following along! :)