HOPE IN SHADOWS 2010: Downtown East Side Photography Contest is in its 8th Year
Hope In Shadows news short from 24Hrs Vancouver
Yesterday I was pleased to volunteer as the documentary photographer for the camera handout at Hope In Shadows photography contest. Hope In Shadows is produced by Pivot Legal Society, and provides residents of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side an opportunity to photograph their neighbourhood from their perspective – showing the lighter side of an area that most outsiders mistakenly dismiss as a dark and dangerous place. Contestants lined up outside the Interurban Gallery at 1 East Hastings to register for one of 200 single use cameras. With only 26 exposures each to capture their vision, some 4000 photos will be narrowed down to 30 winners, and then further reduced to the 12 that are then published in next year’s calendar. It’s quite amazing the emotional and aesthetic qualities in the photographs that result.
A Hope In Shadows contestant showing off his winning photo at the InterUrban Gallery
Some people might challenge what the net benefit of a contest like this is. I think that some of the more privileged residents of this city may believe that purchasing a Hope In Shadows calendar somehow excuses their ignorance of the oft-shunned ‘bad cousin’ of Vancouver’s family of communities. Knowingly or unknowingly they might even be contributing to the oppression of the Downtown East Side neighbourhood simply by going about their daily lives. Yes, I do believe that buying a calendar does provide some people and some organizations that vehicle. But on another level, I think about what the contest has brought to the neighbourhood – one, an uncommon opportunity for the contest’s participants to have a little creative fun with the excitement of pretty decent prizes and recognition. Two, the official vendors who sell the calendar on the street pocket 50% of the $20 price for every calendar they sell – this can provide a substantial income to some people for a portion of the year. Third, and perhaps the biggest impact is that the calendar may actually reach some people and change their perceptions… perhaps some of those people living a more privileged life are moved enough to ask themselves whether that community should be walked on, ignored, and misrepresented as it so often is. Case in point – myself. The first time I saw a Hope In Shadows calendar three years ago, it piqued my curiosity just enough to take a closer look at a neighbourhood that I was once afraid to enter (because of its portrayal in the media). Now, I’ve been volunteering there for over two years, and while I wouldn’t quite call myself an advocate, I could certainly be considered a conduit for advocates of the neighbourhood.
A Hope In Shadows volunteer shows a contestant how to operate the flash
In addition to photographing the camera handout this year (my photos have been published by Hope In Shadows by clicking on the photo above or here), I was also on the panel at the photo workshop (where contestants learn how to take better photos with a single use camera) and I just received the good news that I will also be one of four jurors in the selection of this year’s photos.
This is Hope In Shadows’ 8th annual contest and my second year volunteering – it’s quite an honour indeed. I’ve also embedded at the top a short news clip from 24Hrs Vancouver, who were on site to cover the event along with CBC, CTV, 1130AM Radio, and other media.
SPLENDOUR IN THE NIGHT: 1500 portraits of the Downtown Eastside December 21-22 on Dunlevy (at Oppenheimer Park)
Greetings readers. It’s been some time since my last post and that means I have been terribly busy, too busy to post in fact – and this is going to be a short one too:
A gentle reminder that the photos that I and 12 other photographers took of 744 (plus 800 from last year = 1500+ portraits!) Downtown Eastside residents back in October, will be projected onto a screen beginning at dusk on the winter solstice, two nights from now, and ending the following morning. Not specific enough? The show begins at 4pm on Monday, December 21 and runs all night long until Tuesday at 8am on Dunlevy at Oppenheimer Park.
It’s a free show and everyone is welcome. Read my previous post about this event if you’d like more background.
“Splendour in the Night …a silent homage to our DTES neighbours, an outdoor projection of those portraits gathered in October.”
Happy holidays!
SPLENDOUR IN THE NIGHT: 744 Portraits of the Downtown East Side
Sunday, October 18, 2009. Four hours. Thirteen photographers. Six locations. Seven hundred forty-four portraits of happy, willing Downtown East Side neighbours.
I do not recommend that anyone walk into Vancouver’s infamous Downtown East Side and begin snapping photos. Even carrying a camera in the area will certainly attract angry looks, likely some angry comments, and perhaps even angry actions from residents weary of their portrayal in popular media, impatient with the world looking in on them as if they were on display in a zoo. The first time I ventured to the downtown east side with my camera, I was a naive outsider, and I was on the receiving end of those angry looks, comments, and yes, actions. I don’t go there with my camera anymore, unless I am invited.
Vancouver’s Downtown East Side can be a hazardous place for photographers, that is unless you are well known and well trusted – the Downtown East Side Neighbourhood House is just that. A fixture at the corner of East Hastings and Jackson for over three years, the Neighbourhood House is a tiny, grass-roots community center happily decorated with a brightly painted wall mural and a small street-side garden – both curiously free of any fences, graffiti or trash – the Neighbourhood House cares for its neighbours and its neighbours care for it. The people that staff it are happy, selfless and welcoming to anyone that wants to visit. You can get a hot coffee, a healthy meal, a good conversation, participate in one of their many food or craft programs, or maybe even get a photography lesson from yours truly.
Only a well-trusted organization like the Downtown East Side Neighbourhood House could attract 744 Downtown East Side residents to participate in an ambitious project like Splendour In The Night. The show is the manifestation of the long-time vision of the Neighbourhood House’s Executive Director, Joyce Rock. Now in its second year, many residents sought us out to have their photo taken for this year’s show. You might have noticed that there are no photos in this post. This is because all of the photographers gave their word that their work would be used solely for Splendour In The Night. Not a single photo will make it into our portfolios. No pay, no pictures, no expectations. Just the opportunity to get to know the people from a neighbour’s perspective, as friends.
Splendour In The Night is a celebration of the neighbourhood, for the neighbourhood, by the neighbourhood. It is an outdoor slide show, portraits projected on a big screen beginning at dusk on the longest night of the year – the winter solstice in December – and running until the following morning. The show will take place outside, adjacent to Oppenheimer Park in old Japantown. It is not a media event. It is not a protest. And the public is welcome to stop by and enjoy the show.
HONOURING OUR PEOPLE STORIES OF THE INTERNMENT CONFERENCE: filming stories of Canada’s internment of its Japanese citizens
Today I was a videographer at the Honouring Our People Stories of the Internment Conference at the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre in Burnaby, BC. Since moving to Vancouver two years ago I have had many opportunities to reconnect with my Japanese-Canadian heritage; I jumped at the chance to be part of this event and I hope to bring my own family members from Alberta to participate next year.
My father's family working the sugar beet fields near Raymond, Alberta
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, thrusting the Allies into a new front in World War II. One of Canada’s and the US’s reactions on the home front was to effectively declare war on their own citizens; anyone of Japanese descent – men, women, children and the elderly – were harshly discriminated against in what became one of the most shameful violations of civil liberties in our countries’ histories (this was recognized through formal redress by both the Canadian and US governments in 1988). The entire population of Japanese Canadians (20,000) and Americans (120,000) were promptly stripped of all of their property and rights; families were split up, and “evacuated” to internment camps in the interior of British Columbia. In Canada one of the only opportunities for families to stay together was to move to the prairie; due to a serious labour shortage in the sugar beet industry, whole families were permitted to move to Southern Alberta to live and work in the fields – backbreaking manual labour that was normally done by transient workers during the summer. My father was the youngest child in of one of these families.
My grandparents immigrated to Canada from Japan in 1917 and worked a confectionary store next to Oppenheimer Park, in Vancouver, BC. In the early 1930’s they left Vancouver and settled near Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island to work in the lumber industry. In February, 1941 my father was born and one year later, after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the family avoided the internment camps by moving to the Raymond District of Southern Alberta to work the sugar beet fields. In 2007, sixty-five years after my family was forced from their home by their own government, I was the first to move back to the west coast of Canada.
At today’s event I was witness to a circle of seven people who shared their evacuation stories and what ensued afterwards in their lives. As much as I thought I knew about this period in my family’s history, I realized that I actually know very little. The more I learn, the more I am inspired to learn.
The videos I helped to shoot today will be added to the archives at the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre in Burnaby, BC.
SPATIAL POETICS VIII: experiments in place and migration
This was a lot of fun to shoot – and to experience. Two performances, one musical, and one audiovisual, in sequence, at dusk on September 20, in the heart of old Japantown, on the Downtown East Side of Vancouver. The evening began with “Drawing Line” by Mark Soo and John Korsrud (with musicians Evan Arntzen, Saul Berson, Michael Braverman, Bruce Freedman, Graham Ord, and Bill Runge) and finished with “Coastal Calls” by Shima Iuchi and Jean Routhier, an audiovisual expression on the top floor of the Japanese Language Hall with a 360 degree vista of the City of Vancouver.
Six saxophonists took their positions along a “line” that ran five city blocks. Once in position, they passed musical phrases back and forth for two 15 minute performances, filling the air with a pleasant departure from the traffic and industry that overwhelm that neighbourhood on any given weekday. In that short time I would have to run to five positions along the five block line, plus the roof of the Japanese Language Hall, to reach each musician and get the shot with enough time to go and cover the remaining locations. I had a few different approaches in mind to cover this event – but the light was falling off quickly, so I settled on using flash – even though I more often lean towards using only natural light. To give the photographs more drama I set the strobe up off-camera and triggered with my PocketWizards. I am pleased with the results, although if given more time and had I anticipated that the sun was going to drop out of the sky that quickly, hindsight has provided me with improvement ideas for “next time”, as always.
The second performance that evening was something quite different, and one that I would have to be much less visible for. In “Drawing Line”, I was firing off a flash at the musician for ten to thirty exposures. While certainly distracting for the musician, it was limited to five minutes before I would have to run off to photograph the next musician in the line. That performance, a musical one, was simply not affected. “Coastal Calls” on the other hand, had a large visual component that could not be interrupted with a strobing light – and that suited me fine. As a mentioned, I normally shoot with available light – it suits the unobtrusive documentary style that I have become so accustom to when photographing weddings and documentary films with sensitive subjects. So, off with the flash and dial up the ISO, or gain, for the videographers out there.
The Canon 5D MarkII performs remarkably well in low light. I shot most of the “Coastal Calls” at ISO3200 and applied Noise Ninja in post, although I don’t think it really needed the noise reduction. Shooting in low light normally requires a fast lens (I used the Canon 16-35 f2.8L) but this time the lens was chosen more for the super wide aesthetic it offers and less for its speed. The dynamic nature of “Drawing Line” and of the saxophone called for a dramatic look. The off camera flash, the super wide stretch at the edges of the lens, Dutch angles, and vibrant colours all contributed. I didn’t bother changing the lens for “Coastal Calls” later in the evening and found no reason to – it proved last night to be a very capable lens for both purposes.
For more information on Spatial Poetics VIII please visit the website of the Powell Street Festival Society.
POWELL STREET FESTIVAL 2009
The 33rd annual Powell Street Festival was held August 1st and 2nd at Woodland Park this summer and I was there as one of three official event photographers. My parents were in town to visit and so we made a weekend of the festival – they volunteered at the lottery booth while I moved around the park collecting photos in the hot sun. The festival is normally held in Oppenheimer Park, at the intersection of Powell and Jackson Streets in the heart of old Japantown, but due to park renovations for the 2010 Olympics, it was held at Woodland Park near Commercial Drive this year.
The Powell Street Festival is the main event held by the Powell Street Festival Society, a group that celebrates the arts and culture of Japanese and Asian Canadians. At the festival you will find arts and crafts, martial arts demonstrations, Taiko drumming, lots of great food, and many other superb performances.
