Time for a look back on some of the photographs I took in 2023 while on the civic affairs beat.
Many were of politicians.
Many were of Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, including the one to begin this series of photos.
I chose this one over others because it was not your typical mayor-at-lectern-gesturing shot that have accompanied so many of my stories.
I took this one at the end of an interview I did with Sim in his office to mark his first six months on the job.
As it happens with all my interviews, the photograph always comes after the conversation, often leaving me with little time to experiment and do something creative other than a straight-ahead shot.
Which is what I did here.
I used a 50-millimetre lens (Canon’s cheap but remarkable version) and got the mayor to sit in a chair and look into the camera. He chose to cross his legs and arms, which worked for me. The available light coming from his office windows helped light the room.
I have other wider photographs of the mayor, which show the black-and-white photo of Chinese railway workers on the wall behind him.
But my question-and-answer session with him was not focused solely on Sim being Vancouver’s first Chinese-Canadian mayor, although we did talk about that new piece of history; by the way, the gold ribbon pinned to his shirt was to mark Asian heritage month in Canada.
This shot, I believe, fits the piece I wrote, which covered a variety of topics, including public safety, taxes, reconciliation and the East Hastings Street encampment.
Political power
Can you name all the politicians and First Nations leaders in this photograph?
From left to right, that’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman, Vancouver city councillor Mike Klassen and Minister of National Defence Bill Blair.
Behind Klassen is Vancouver councillor Lisa Dominato. To her left is Musqueam Indian Band Chief Wayne Sparrow, who is walking behind Syex̱wáliya Ann Whonnock of the Squamish Nation.
Further up the stairs is Vancouver-Granville MP Taleeb Noormohamed, who is speaking to Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault. Behind Guilbeault is Vancouver councillor Lenny Zhou with a person unfamiliar to me.
This photograph was taken on the June morning of the federal government’s launch of the national adaptation strategy to battle climate change.
The photograph and others were taken for my colleague Stefan Labbé, who wrote about the news event.
I happened to be at city hall for a council meeting that morning.
I was happy to get this shot because it’s rare to have so many politicians in one photograph doing something other than posing together to cut a ribbon. Shot this with a 24-70mm lens.
Night shift
Some of you might recognize the area where I took this photograph of Vancouver police Insp. Marco Veronesi; the SkyTrain in the background kind of gives it away.
Veronesi had stopped along the stretch of Quebec Street near Science World. I was in his SUV on a ride-along and wanted to get a photograph of him that showed some of what he does as the duty officer for the shift.
The evening light was falling off, so I needed to get an image sooner than later. I noticed the reflection his computer screen was giving off on his face, so I got out of the SUV, put on my 16-35mm lens and started firing away.
The SkyTrain in the background was by design and I thought it added another element to the photograph.
Pleased to meet you
Got a lot of responses/reaction to this photograph on the X social media platform.
That’s OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle, just seconds after being approached by Joo Kim Tiah of Holborn Properties Ltd., the builder behind the Little Mountain Housing site.
They’re standing outside city hall.
Tiah had just offered to meet with Boyle and handed her his business card. The councillor’s reaction kind of gives away how she was feeling at that moment.
Shot this with a 70-200mm lens and only got off a couple of frames before the two parted ways.
Chinatown condo controversy
I’ve done a lot of reporting on Beedie’s proposal to build a condo at 105 Keefer St. in Chinatown.
This photograph of Anna Lau was taken on the first night of a development permit board hearing at city hall, where Beedie would eventually get the green light to proceed with the 111-unit building.
What’s interesting about this photograph was where I took it.
Unlike the council chamber, which restricts media to certain areas, I was able to position myself next to table of the person leading the meeting, which was held in a room on the main floor of city hall.
This would be the equivalent of me standing next to Mayor Ken Sim while he’s running a meeting from his desk in the chamber. Never happens, although Mr. Mayor, if you’re reading this, let’s make that work in 2024.
Anyway, from that position I did my best to frame Lau with the three men sitting behind her, which happened to be Greg Borowski of Merrick Architecture, Rob Fiorvento, managing partner at Beedie and Curtis Neeser, vice-president of development at Beedie.
So instead of posting a photograph of a single person at a microphone, getting the three project proponents in the same frame told a better story. Trusty 70-200mm lens with this one.
Chinatown condo controversy (part two)
Same topic as above, but this photograph was taken outside.
Wanted to show the level of protest against the 105 Keefer St. proposal, so positioned myself on the back steps of city hall and fired off a series of frames until was happy with one or two.
Making it happen proved difficult because was shooting into the sun. Waited patiently for Nicolas Yung (with microphone) to move his head to block the harsh light, which he eventually did.
So thank you, Nicolas.
Shot with a 24-70mm lens.
Residential school memorial
Haida artist Tamara Bell set up the memorial in May 2021 in response to the discovery by Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation of what is believed to be 215 unmarked graves of children who were students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Bell and her son placed 215 pairs of shoes on the southside steps of the art gallery at Robson Square. Bell told me she believed the memorial would only last a few hours or days before city crews disposed of the shoes.
“The idea was just to put the shoes down to honour those children, but then shortly after that, people came forward from all over the place,” she said in May, pointing out the stuffed toy animals and additional shoes placed on the steps.
“It was really just the simplest thing. I never expected it to do anything. I expected it just to be thrown in the garbage an hour later.”
I met Bell at the site and got her to pick a spot among the items on the steps and took a few frames from different angles. I’m glad I got a shot when I did because the memorial was gone the next morning, much to the surprise of the City of Vancouver.
Shot with a 24-70mm lens.
Protocol agreements
This photograph of drummers and dancers of the Squamish Nation came on a smoking hot day in July.
I took it on the grounds of the Museum of Vancouver, where Mayor Ken Sim had just signed a protocol agreement with the Nation.
The dance was brief and most of the frames I took weren’t usable; difficult to capture the face of the dancer, who moved faster than I could squeeze off a series of images to choose from.
Upon reflection, could have been more creative, using some blur but I’d been in the sun too long and needed to file my story.
This one was the best of the bunch, so I went with it.
Shot with a 24-70mm lens.
Remembrance Day
I always attend a Remembrance Day ceremony, whether it’s to write a story or to join family and friends to remember people such as my late grandfather, who fought at Vimy and Passchendaele as a member of the Seaforth Highlanders.
This year, I didn’t write a story and focused on photography.
The three images I’ve included here are from Victory Square, all shot with a 70-200mm lens. Veteran Jonathan Tremblay and his dog Mia are pictured at the cenotaph; I did not get the names of the people in the other two photographs.
Inside an SRO
Glacier Media multimedia reporter Alanna Kelly and I spent the better part of an afternoon in June with tenants of The Arlington single-room-occupancy building in Strathcona.
Richard Schwab was one of the tenants we met in reporting a story on the work the DTES SRO Collaborative is leading in The Arlington and other buildings.
In my experience, SROs are notoriously dark places, with trying to find available light a challenge. So when Schwab was walking down a hallway, I saw a shaft of light hit him as he walked by a window.
I asked him to stop and face the window. I was also aware of the fire exit sign at the end of the hall, which was part of the story. The 70-200mm lens was again my friend on that day.
Work camp housing
I had written several stories about the temporary “work camp-style” housing that Premier David Eby promised would be built at Main and Terminal.
There were lots of delays.
When that site finally opened, I wanted to give the reader a sense of who was living there. I found Steven McKeen, who agreed to tell his story and be photographed in his room.
He had his blind open when he invited me in; the sunlight coming through his window was harsh. So I asked him to turn down the blind to make for a more even light source.
Used a 24-70mm lens.
East Hastings encampment
These three photographs of people living on East Hastings sidewalks were taken over the space of a week in April.
That was around the time of the city-led move to ramp up enforcement of Fire Chief Karen Fry’s order to clear the sidewalks of tents and structures.
All three people — John, Melody and Troy — were gracious with their time in telling their stories and allowed me to photograph them. Always important to hear from the people most affected by a city-led action so the reader can have more information to understand a story.
Security
I included this photograph not because it’s anything special — although the light from the flashlight gives it a boost — but because it tells the story of the increased security at city hall.
The woman having her bags checked is a Langara journalism student, who then had to be “wanded” by a security guard before being allowed in the lobby to the council chamber.
I have to go through the same drill each time I show up to cover and photograph a meeting.
Gone are the days when people could freely take the elevators or stairs to the lobby and sit in the chamber. Signs were OK back then, too.
Heck, harm reduction advocates even brought a coffin to city hall one day and dropped it on the floor of the chamber.
Ken being Ken
Since I began this series with a photograph of Mayor Ken Sim, I thought I’d bookend it with a shot of His Worship in his Halloween best.
Lots of comments/views on this photograph when I posted it on X.
I’ve got nothing more to say about it, except that I shot it with a 70-200mm lens.
