In a city as rainy as Vancouver, umbrellas are not just commonplace - they're essential.
So much so, that it wouldn't be unusual to come across a stray one lying on the ground during the greyer months. Who among us hasn't forgotten an umbrella on a bus or at a restaurant?
Most people probably wouldn't mourn the loss too much, but one Vancouver resident has a different perspective on the wet weather tools.
"I started taking pics of lost umbrellas for a couple of reasons," says the photographer, who calls herself Joan Perdue and goes by "Joan Alone" on Instagram. "They seemed to be quite common, and they had a sort of sad beauty, not only in their crumpled shapes but thinking about how something can be valued but then forgotten, discarded, or torn from our hands."
Perdue takes a very introspective view of her discoveries.
She used to post her umbrella photos to Flickr before seeing the potential to share images and receive comments on Instagram. She migrated all of her photography over in 2013 and now her account, @parapluie_perdue which means "lost umbrellas," in French, allows people to comment and even potentially reconnect with their lost umbrellas.
Not all of the umbrellas she finds are in good enough condition to be of use again. Some are broken and battered like they were caught in a big storm which was probably why they were left in the first place.
But sometimes, Perdue says, they are "perfectly wrapped up but forgotten at a bus stop like someone waiting for a love who never arrives. All these little poetic tragedies."
She says there isn't one specific spot where she sees more umbrellas but after a massive rainfall, she can count on finding one. "And there's no real need to go searching, you'll notice you see them everywhere," she says.
When Perdue first started taking pictures of umbrellas she didn't expect people she knew to start sending her their own photos, sometimes from all over the world.
She says she probably gets sent more now than she takes herself and the backlog can get overwhelming.
Like a true poet, she sits in a cafe while she edits and writes the captions.
Perdue estimates she's getting close to 1,000 photos and is considering doing a small art show or printing a limited run of images but she hasn't decided yet.
"I feel it's coming to an end soon," she admits. "Maybe I'll collect images of creative [Instagram] pages that have come to a close forever."
