Under Vancouver 1972-1982

by Greg Girard (Photographer)

Greg Girard’s photographs of Vancouver from the 1970s and early 1980s show us the city’s final days as a port town at the end of the railway line. Soon after Vancouver began to be noticed by the wider world (Expo 86 is generally agreed on as the pivotal moment), the city began refashioning itself as an urban resort on nature’s doorstep and attracting attention as a destination for real estate investment. At that time, long before post-9/11 security concerns sealed off the working waterfront from the city, many of Vancouver’s downtown and east side streets ended at the waterfront, an area filled with commercial fishing docks, cargo terminals, and bars and cafes for waterfront workers and sailors. Pawn-shop windows downtown displayed outboard motors, chainsaws and fishing gear. Wandering these streets, living in cheap hotels, Girard photographed the workaday (and night) world of the city where he grew up. The photographs in Under Vancouver 1972–1982 were made before Girard began earning a living as a magazine photographer, later establishing a formal practice as an artist. They reveal an early interest in the hidden and the overlooked, the use of color film at night, and the extended photographic inquiry of a specific place, all of which became signature features of later books such as City of Darkness and City of Darkness Revisited (about the infamous Kowloon Walled City), Phantom Shanghai and Hanoi Calling. Under Vancouver 1972–1982 is the first comprehensive collection of Girard’s early photographs of Vancouver. Made in and of the moment, a young photographer’s earliest engagements (often featuring the underside of the city), the pictures now form an unintended photographic record of a Vancouver that has all but disappeared.

Genres: Photography, Canada, Nonfiction

196 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 2017

About the author

Based in Shanghai, Greg Girard is a photographer working to record the changes taking place in China and across Asia for leading editorial and corporate clients.

Born in Canada in 1955, Girard grew up in Vancouver. In 1986 he began his photographic career at Asiaweek, covering news and features in Hong Kong. Between 1987 and 1997 Girard photographed on assignment across Asia. In 1993, with co-author Ian Lambot, he published the book City of Darkness, a document of the final years of Kowloon's "Walled City," a Hong Kong high-rise that was home to 35,000 people.

In 2002, in collaboration with fellow photographer Fritz Hoffmann, Girard launched the picture agency documentCHINA, an online archive specializing in contemporary photography from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Girard's photographs have appeared in publications such as Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, Elle, Paris-Match, Stern, the New York Times Magazine, and others worldwide. His work has been exhibited in galleries in South Korea, London, Germany, Helsinki, and New York.

Reviews

[DW]

Vancouver was always a town with grit to me. Wandering around at all hours, it is all about the nightlife of the Drive (and too many other neighbourhoods to mention). The quiet suburbs of endless glass were never how I experienced the city, except maybe flying past them on a bike on my way to somewhere better.

Super cool seeing a photographer who took pictures in the spirit of its grit, though 40 years before.

[Davy · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

Not necessarily the most technically precise photography you'll ever see, but like his neighbor Fred Herzog, what Girard lacks in technical expertise he makes up for with restless curiosity and a knack for capturing incredible depth in quiet scenes. Very noir, very sly, surprisingly vibrant, even in the dark -- Girard gives us a narrative of Vancouver we would not otherwise be privy to.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty neat. What's kind of odd is how different/ how similar Vancouver feels now as it comes out in these photographs. I'm not sure I could put my finger on the margin. Also, there's a brief interview with William Gibson at the end.

[Janet Brisson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love his photos of the Vancouver I hold dear to my heart. My old hometown, how it was when it still had a rough edge to it.