Photographer
I am looking for help with a personal long-term project. I am compiling an archive of interviews of Canadian photographers — which, in turn, will become a history of Canadian photography. When I began my project I was (and still am) researching a specific group of Vancouver-area photographers. The project has kept growing, and I am now looking for input/information from photographers (and anyone connected …
A long time eye catcher as the highway splits at Cache Creek, this old motel appeared to be undergoing renovations when photographed last year. Eight months or so later on a more recent road trip and there appears to have been little accomplished on the renovation front. Hopefully the Castle Inn will eventually be restored to it’s former 50’s road side architectural glory.
Late night Vancouver street photography while walking along Granville Street. Photographing an ad for a camera phone and camera phone photography.
Architecture, of course, like everything works in cycles of fashion. The A-frame entrance to suburban housing, at least in British Columbia, was common enough in the 60’s and 70’s. It’s perhaps rarer to see this vernacular architecture at use in commercial buildings from that era, certainly with the use of the double A-frame on the structure, which you can’t see in this image(the A is …
I recently read an interview with a local archives manager. He talked about the work and purpose of the archives and about acquiring material for the facility. He is always on the lookout for unique local photographs showing the community’s history but he made a a comment that I thought every documentary photographer should consider. He said that it was easy to find/receive images of …
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 …
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 …
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 …
A BC Transit bus lies at the bottom of a heap of scrap metal waiting to be torn apart and added to the pile in Victoria, British Columbia. The business sits on Victoria’s waterfront just on the edge of the city core. The city has voiced support for keeping industry on the waterfront but one wonders how long a recycling plant will stay (be allowed …
I met photographer Dion Manastyrski a few years ago when I gave a talk to a local photo group. He contacted me after and asked if I minded meeting up to have a look at images from a project he was working on. The photos he showed me were from the Canadian prairies, mainly Saskatchewan, and examined the disappearance of rural and small town life …
The Pointed Sticks, came out of the Vancouver punk scene in the late seventies. I photographed them quite often, perhaps only second to DOA, back then. They haven’t played a lot in the intervening years although they have been performing and recording. I last saw them perform at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver in 2009 . This Victoria gig was their first in the island …
Old school garages and auto wreckers are almost as appealing a subject as neighbourhood corner stores. They are disappearing just as fast too. Coaltown is a reference to Nanaimo’s past as a coal mining town.
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 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 …
I find it interesting to look at other photographers who are working on similar projects, if only to see how they look at the world differently. Locally a number of us are photographing our immediate world, shooting land/street/environmental scapes of Vancouver Island. One surprising discovery was that all these photographers are men, the women I know shooting documentary tend to shoot people, not exclusively, of …
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.
Looking for inspiration for my own work I’ll look at the work of contemporaries but I also like to look through collections of the work of documentary photographers who photographed in earlier eras. The British Columbia Archives is the largest collection in the province (and the most diverse) but the Vancouver Library has some interesting holdings including images from the collective the Leonard Frank Memorial …
A classic, corner grocery store, still open and serving the local neighbourhood.
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 …
The photograph above has nothing to do with the post. It’s a street scene from downtown Victoria, where every year over the Christmas season, the owner puts up a inflatable snowman, often the closest we’ll come to snow in our west coast climate. If you are a reader, discovering a new writer whose words you enjoy is obviously always a treat. I tend to read …
The Bay Grocery is one of those neighbourhood establishments, the corner store, that get get harder and harder to find each year. I enjoy how they look front the street, at either dawn or dusk, lighting up the street for the residents.
The current bus depot, located behind the Fairmont Empress Hotel, is soon to be torn down and replaced with high end condo units. No replacement location has yet been announced for the depot. The current location is ideal for visitors as it is right downtown and a very short distance from most attractions and the Inner Harbour.
Duncan, on Vancouver island, is known for the totem poles displayed around the town. Duncan is actually nicknamed The City of Totems. The very walkable downtown is a nice mix of older small town architecture and this unusual circular office building next to the courthouse. I like this view of the one pole and the office tower.
The MV Uchuck III was built in Oregon in 1942 originally for use as a minesweeper. It now carries both passengers and freight along the west coast of Vancouver Island. Website at http://www.getwest.ca/the-uchuck
This is the Kamloops Daily News building on Seymour Street in Kamloops, British Columbia. The News ceased publication on January 11, 2014, another victim of the declining fortunes of the newspaper industry. The man in the suit pictured on the wall is long time editor and former Mayor Mel Rothenburger. The News survived when the Daily Sentinel newspaper folded and is itself survived by Kamloops …
The thing about older hotel/motels, much like independent corner grocery stores, is that they have a uniqueness and really do tie in to their surroundings, history and place. This photo was taken while standing in the parking lot of the ultimate in generic commercial property, a McDonalds but the view from there was very much a local one.
Cowboys on horses work among cattle along just off the highway between Kamloops and Merritt. A scene seemingly from the past but just another work day for cattlemen in British Columbia’s interior.
We’re lucky to have images held in a variety of archives (the BC Archives in Victoria, the Vancouver Public Library’s holdings etc.) although they are general archives holding documents, objects as well as photographs. It is too bad there is no one British Columbia Photographic Archive or BC Photography Archive, whatever you’d call it, where one could view all the images held in collections.
Even the Canadian flag hanging from the building seemed dejected by its current status
The North Park Bicycle Shop is a community fixture along Quadra Street in Victoria, in the North Park neighbourhood. The building always looks, to me, wonderfully scruffy and invitingly homely.