September 28, 2007
It was an uncertain walk. Meandering at times, Roman at others. Someone asked me once why I take photographs. I answered him, with a few stutters, that it was to capture those scenes that usually pass by as a blur, but leave enough of an impression to stay lodged in the mind's eye. Or something like that. I'm not a socially eloquent person at my core, I'm just an East Van boy.

All of those factors came into play on this walk/shoot. From downtown over to the oddly residential vehicle thoroughfare of 12th Avenue, or down by the Value Village at 49th and Victoria-- a community's little commercial strip which, like everywhere in the city, is yielding to the pressures of the residential building boom. I remember trips down to this area on the bus from Hastings early last decade; a quick browse at the second hand store, and a samosa across the street afterwards. It was a distant yet comfortable little hub to me, then.

Distances have shrunk and soon the feet were treading beside the Fraser River's North Arm. For kilometres, a path follows the world's great salmon river, alongside endless log booms, busy tug boats and new townhomes. Then the townhomes end and a vast space of dirt and a few traces of remnant mill material pops up. All of this eventually yields to a green belt between light industrial parks, subject to the river and tide's flood and ebb.

So as the feet moved, the shutter followed. Sometimes it's not immediate why I am photographing something until later review. "Ah, that was it," as I see the old man on the bench gazing distantly at an empty school playground in the late afternoon sun.

Here you have a spontaneous profile of geography, culture and a glimpse of change, which should be self-explanatory.