The documentary nature of photography

[Fawley]

My recent purchase of a cheapy film scanner has allowed me to see some of my old photos that never made it to paper prints. Among them is this shot of Hastings St. in downtown Vancouver, Canada, circa 1982. Although I was never moved enough by the image to print it, I now value this picture because it shows Hastings street when it still attacted shoppers and had a healthy street life. This section of the street gradually deteriorated into a stretch of boarded up store fronts, drug addicts and street people. The area has the dubious distinction of having the postal code with the lowest per capita income in all of Canada. In the runup to the 2010 Olympics, there was a real push to "clean up" this area and it will gradually become gentrified, but I suspect that it will never again be the "Main Street type" shopping area that it once was.

 

[bo_lorentzen]

True observation. I have been scanning my grand fathers negatives. and find that images which now seem very meaningful may seem that way for other reasons than they were originally captured. 😀

Bo

 

[Spleenrippa]

Hastings is still quite the shopping center. I, for one, enjoy having the luxury of choosing between many dealers 😛
I like the picture. Nice to look into the past and (for me) see something close to home that I would have been too young (or not born yet) to see.

 

[Fawley]

Hastings is still quite the shopping center. I, for one, enjoy having the luxury of choosing between many dealers 😛
I like the picture. Nice to look into the past and (for me) see something close to home that I would have been too young (or not born yet) to see.

Good quip about the shopping choice. Thats because the sellers use both the streets and the alleys.😀
There are even more areas under transition now so get out there with your camera. You'll be glad you did 30 years from now. I also did some photography in the Yaletown area of Vancouver, which at the time was just a collection of abandoned warehouses and loading docks, absolutely no hint of the hip, trendy area it is now. Unfortuntely I had just started using a 4x5 Graflex and so I don't have the number of images I would like. I was also trying to be "arty" so the photographs aren't very good documents. Most of them aren't very good images either for that matter, but I value them nontheless. In hindsight I should have tried to take more photos in the style of Walker Evans. Thank goodness we had photographers like him.