A while back I posted on a 1970’s publication featuring the work of a group of Vancouver photographers called the BC Almanac. That post is here.
The publication was unique as it consisted of a series of mini-books/magazines, each one dedicated to one photographer’s work with the whole collection housed in a folder/cover. The one copy I was able to source and look over was missing many of the individual piece so it was difficult to get a sense of the whole project. It was a shame as I felt it was an important part of Vancouver photo history and there seemed no way to have a good look at that.
The folks at North Vancouver’s Presentation House Gallery obviously thought the same thing and have mounted an exhibition of images and artifacts from the original work and publication and have republished the book, while this version does come in a folder, all the individual photographer sections/chapters are bound together in one big book.
I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to take a look at the exhibition and purchase a copy of the book. The work, and some of it, as would be expected, holds up better than others, is still a great look at this time in Vancouver through the eyes of a diverse group of photographers. An added bonus is the inclusion of work by some of the photographers that while not in the book is from the same time period. It was great to see Roy Kiyooka’s Stone D Gloves (or Stoned Gloves, I’ve seen it both ways) on the wall. I’d only seen repros in books before.
The BC Almanac book’s reproduction, like the original, is contrasty and grainy but again is a great record of a certain local photography that thanks to the exhibition we can once again access.
