Lonely Tree, Gastown, Vancouver, 1984

The incongruence of the solitary tree, perched on a rooftop in the heart of Gastown, seemed to me at the time a metaphor for my own struggle to survive in the city. It didn’t escape me that the prostrate plant (a weeping willow?) resembled a weary green giant, stranded far from home.

Original print

In the foreground, pigeons roost and a free-flying seagull outruns its shadow over the hot, tar and gravel roof. These details prove the maxim that only “mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.”

The photograph was made on a bicycle exploration of Vancouver’s historic hub, one of twelve exposures from my Mamiyaflex medium-format camera on a sunny afternoon, in 1984. I brought back several more successful images from this outing, illustrated at the preceding link.

I originally chose this exposure as my favourite, printing it at 15″ x 15″ on silver paper for a barn dance-cum-art exhibition in the Fraser Valley. By coincidence, I’ve returned to this size for digital editions of the Eighties Vancouver portfolio.

I still have an original framed print, complete with discoloured mat. It’s nice, but again I’m amazed at the quality of prints I’m able to produce with modern digital technology, from scanning of original negatives, to archival printing on the Epson 4900. These new prints, especially the limited editions printed on acid-free, rag paper, are superior.

The view across rooftops takes in the intersection of Water, Powell, Carall, and Alexander Streets at Maple Tree Square, with the “flatiron” Hotel Europe corner-on in the upper centre of the scene.

The mountains of Golden Ears Park, including the namesake peak and shark’s fin of Blanshard Needle — both of which I’d climbed on escapes from the city — are visible under puffs of white cloud on the far horizon.

Prints available in limited editions, beginning at $79.95CA, and 7″x 7″ open edition, at $34.95.