Vintage images originally shot on film, redux with digital tools and materials

[RPark]

Hi all. I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but I'm open to critiques and comments.

About three years ago, I began to convert my "Eighties Vancouver" portfolio, originally shot on medium format B&W film, printed and exhibited as silver prints, to digital files printed on rag papers with pigment inks (on an Epson 4900).

In many cases I feel the prints I'm getting now exceed the beauty of the originals -- whether that's due to a maturing eye or the superiority of modern technology. I know that can't be exactly illustrated by web versions; you'll have to take my word for it.

For those who don't know Vancouver, BC, it has been transformed by rapid development over the last three decades so many of the urban landscapes and buildings I recorded are now obliterated or changed.

This week, I was lucky to have Vancouver Magazine publish a profile of me and the work, which has attracted a fair bit of attention the collection that had lain almost forgotten in my archive for well over a decade.

At the time I made the photographs I was inspired by works of photographers in the documentary tradition, consumed by the perhaps presumptive idea that my old Mamiyaflex 6x6 camera might reach under the surfaces of things to reveal some hidden secret. Certainly the works of my heroes -- Manuel Alvarez-Bravo, Walker Evans, Eugene Atget -- had that effect on me.

I have the larger 80' Van portfolio online here.

It is not my place to claim these images as "art," nor do I particularly care. I hope that they might be part of the continuum of good documentary photography. Comments and questions welcome.

[JNB_Rare]

Cool, Raymond. I lived in Vancouver's west end a decade earlier, from 1973 through 75. Some of your photos show familiar sights, and some show changes in the decade in between. I last traveled to Vancouver in 2000. Of course, the waterfront has changed completely, as has False Creek and many other areas. But the big old house I lived in near Barclay and Broughton still stood. It had been cut up into tiny bed-sitting rooms and apartments when I lived there in the 1970's (rent $80 per month). Now? Probably refurbished as super expensive condo apartments.

I'm afraid I wasn't near so dedicated or organized as you with my photography during that era. And "documentary" wasn't really on my radar. Congrats on your project and your profile in Vancouver Magazine.

[RPark]

Thanks John. I lived in the west end at the end of the 70s -- on Robson street, before moving to Kitsilano. My rents were similar. One'd be lucky to rent 600 sq. ft. now for less than $1,500 month.

That's partly why I moved to Vancouver Island.

Your work is suburb, BTW.

[JNB_Rare]

I've had a chance to look further at your website, Raymond. Love the Words and Pictures. And they bring back such memories, too. For a brief time I worked at Vancouver Cameraland on Robson "Strasse" as that end of the street was still called at the time. The small camera shop was across the street from the Mozart Konditorei. On payday, when I felt "flush", I'd treat myself to a slice of poppyseed cake from Mozart's.

It was a time when, for the 'snapshooters', 110 Instamatics started replacing 126 Instamatics, and colour "silk" prints were in vogue. I mention the 110 film only because the camera that I now use –a Micro-4/3 – has a sensor about the same size, but infinitely better quality, of course. At the time, I was mucking about with a battered Pentax, an even more battered Hasselblad, and a truly battered Linhof Technika 4x5. It was all a learning process.

A friend sent me this scan of a picture his sister took of me in 1974 (silk print from instamatic, of course). It makes me laugh.

[RPark]

Great! Love the couch! My hair and beard looked about the same at the time, except red.

Yes, Robsonstrasse it was -- a great neighbourhood. Now it's all Gap and Club Monaco. No more German Deli's, and they demolished all the old beauties, like the Orillia.

I visited a couple of years ago -- stayed at the Blue Horizon, across from my old bug-ridden apartment which, amazingly, has survived. Memories indeed. Glad my pics brought some back for you.

I also have some silk prints from the 70s. Damn things scan with that pattern!