Photographer
While new architecture is as important as old, new, especially chain store architecture, is the same. A visual repetition that repeats across a province, a country and even the world, that makes everything appear to be the same, that in the interest of convenience takes away our regional uniqueness. The Arbutus Cafe in Duncan (above) is a one of a kind local establishment. It has …
This will be an area I’ll be photographing over the next few years as this land gets built up. This view will change quickly, a massive housing development will cover a former gravel pit site. The very first houses in the Royal Bay development are going up in front of Royal Bay Secondary school. The school opened in 2015 and was the first building to …
Came across this place after a random turn off the highway. I really like the way the vines, without their summer leaves, looked wrapped around the old garage. Judging by the shrubs around the awning pillars it’s been awhile since this shop was operational.
This was truly a west coast nautical scene, acreage filled with broken and decaying boats, mainly smaller pleasure or fishing craft. There were no indicators why the mossy rotting boats were there, the only sign visible from the side road I was on said No Trespassing, not really an encouragement to explore more. On my way out I spotted a house, which may be connected …
This photograph shows not only the disappearance of a gas station but the signals the disappearance on an entire grocery store chain (Safeway) on Vancouver Island. Due to a takeover by eastern grocery giant Sobeys of the local chain Thriftys that resulted in the one company owning most of the major chains on the Island the competition bureau (some government organization anyhow) ruled that in …
This small corner store is such a great example of the old school of the neighbourhood grocery in Vancouver. It’s served many generations of neighbours as well children attending Admiral Seymour Elementary School across the street. The Pepsi signs are quite unique too I think, a change from the usual Coke version. The high price of Vancouver real estate has been in the news a …
Renee’s is a classic old school local cafe, with a painted sign which you don’t see very often anymore. The place was busy just before lunch on a recent Saturday with locals enjoying early lunches and the local newspaper. I had a muffin and several, really hot, good cups of coffee and caught up on my notes for the images I’d taken that day.
As an exercise I sometimes try and photograph with an eye to preserving a view that will not exist in the future. The above is one such view. Shot from Cambie Street and looking across Georgia Street to the north. The parking lot seen at the lower right of the image is the future site of the Vancouver Art Gallery. That new building will most …
I’ve been eating at Olympia Pizza for over 30 years. Sure, there was a 15-20 year gap in visits when I lived in Alberta but now that my son lives in the west end, my old neighbourhood, the family has resumed enjoying their house lasagna during visits. It’s wonderful when you can revisit an old favourite. The exterior could use some updating or at least …
The exterior of Army & Navy store, a long time fixture along East Hasting Street in Vancouver, is looking pretty shabby these days. When I was a kid, and the area was still a commercial hub, my parents would bring us in to the city from our home in the Fraser Valley and the Army & Navy was always a stop for new school clothes, …
Homelessness continues to be an issue, mainly for urban areas and Victoria is no exception. Over the past decade a number of tent cities have sprung up, established by the homeless and transient street folk, usually in city parks. The city created a bylaw to address the issue, one that allows camping in parks overnight, but creates time boundaries, when tents can be pitched and …
A view of pedestrians making their way down a snowy back alley in north Kamloops, British Columbia. Downtown is visible in the background. A recent post by Austin, Texas photographer Kirk Tuck about the photographer as a visual anthropologist resonated with me. Here’s an excerpt below, with the link to the full article here. ‘Photographers rarely look to their own cultural or social peers as …
The wreckage of the ship Pacific Sun King lies on the beach in Gyro Park at Cadboro Bay. The 55 foot, 44-tonne live aboard ship washed ashore during a heavy windstorm on December 5. The wreckage has gotten more and more worn out as the owner saved what he could from the ship and subsequent storms have worn away the ship. A more complete story …
Dowler Grocery is yet another of those unique neighbourhood corner stores that has closed. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence that a 7-11 opened up across the street. I’m not sure when Dowler Grocery actually closed, I don’t actually remember it being open. The unusual thing is that even though this photo was taken in 2012 the storefront still looks the same. It hasn’t …
Even today, coal miner, union activist and conscientious objector during World War I, Albert ‘Ginger’ Goodwin remains a controversial figure in British Columbia history. The native of Yorkshire, England came to Canada to work in the coal mines and later became involved in union activities in response to terrible working conditions. He ended up becoming the vice-president of the British Columbia Federation of Labour as …
Every fall since I returned to British Columbia twelve years ago I’ve photographed the spectacle and aftermath of the salmon returning to spawn in Vancouver Island rivers. When I started photographing the autumn event I was using black and white film. I shoot mainly digital now, although still shooting some B/W film when out on the rivers, but feel this particular project looks better in …
Two photographs taken a week apart. In the first a heritage house, sporting some unique architectural detail, sits on supports and a trailer, in the second, the vacant lot after the house was removed and view of the previously hidden seascape. The third, yet to be taken, will show the new structure built on the lot. Change is inevitable and at least in this …
An oversize, somewhat decrepit, pink pig piggy bank sits on the grounds of the Saanich fairgrounds. An image any visitor to the fairgrounds will remember. The grounds are host to the annual Saanich Fall Fair.
A street view in the 300 block of West Hastings Street on the edge of Vancouver’s downtown east side district.
Currently the home of the the Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, the Roxy was formerly the Roxy Cinegogue movie theatre. It looks more like an industrial or farm building than an arts centre.
I get asked the question, what do you?, regarding my photography a lot. It’s easy to answer when I talk about the photography that pays my rent. I am an editorial photographer who supplies images to accompany articles, illustrate stories and/or provide news, sports, entertainment coverage for newspapers and magazines. People get that. It is much harder to explain the project work. I often use …
Jason Flower is a music archivist who issues collections of forgotten, lost and hard to find music as well as being a collector and seller of new and old music LPs, 45s, tapes and CD’s. His Victoria store and archival reissue record label bear the same name, Supreme Echo. He’s passionate about his music and that has led to collections of early punk music from …
The old Oak Bay High School buildings will come down now that the new school building is constructed and will be finished for the 2015-16 school year. The new building will be new, certainly brighter and bigger and up-to-date certainly nicer for students and staff alike. What will be lost will be the collective memories of the old buildings added to each year by by …
Almost everyone living in Victoria knows that Robert Service, the writer who became known as the Bard of the Yukon for his poems such as The Cremation of Sam McGee and The Shooting of Dan McGrew after moving to Whitehorse, worked as a bank clerk for the Bank of British Columbia on Government Street before that move. The bank building opened in 1862 and operated …
The wreckage of an old car lies along along a creek bed in the Richard’s Marsh Park area in Nanaimo, British Columbia. You can see enough of the vehicle still to tell it is 1920/30’s range of vehicle so has been there quite a while. It’s impossible to tell if it was just dumped there or whether it was placed there in a haphazard manner …
The Surf Hotel is an architectural fixture on Victoria’s Dallas Road waterfront. A visually appealing anomaly among the residential units lining the road. The motel was built in 1960 by a Saskatchewan farmer Peter Mangelson who had been spending his winters in Victoria. He spent $3500.00 for the lot. The building was designed by architect Bob Siddall, who designed other local projects including UVIC’s McPherson …
A good read from Mark Hume with photos by John Lehman in the Globe and Mail about ghost towns that still exist (for now) in British Columbia. Story can be found here. Another reminder about how our built landscape disappears from view, taking a part of our history with it.
A classic, corner grocery store, still open and serving the local neighbourhood.
The Travellers Hotel on the main street in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island has seen better days. The construction of the hotel was completed in 1913 when the town was an important coal shipping port. although a miner’s strike in 1912 had halted the economic boom that had been underway.
The former Victoria public library building, constructed for $53,000, was financed by American Andrew Carnegie. The neo-Classical stone building was completed in 1905. A four storey addition was added later, that construction was finished in 1951. The structure which served as a library for over 75 years, and now known as the Carnegie building is used for office space. Businessman Andrew Carnegie donated money to build …