Travel Journal / Disposable Vancouver

What is it about photographing places that drives me? I think it’s looking at the relationship between the geometry of the built environment and where/when/how our bodies traverse it. Usually, I try to explore that connection by shooting buildings head-on, parallel to the facades. To me, that is the most aesthetic way to capture things; it’s matter-of-fact, neutral… and it reflects an architect-chosen angle that is at once pure and deeply flawed (who ever really takes the time to stand directly across from a building to take it in?). That’s how I choose to see the world through the lens, it’s the rule I seem to adhere to. But sometimes, I need to feel more free. And so I try to break down these artificial constraints. On this visit to Vancouver, as I prepped for a portrait shoot, I decided to pick up a disposable camera (with ILFORD 400 film in it, how about that?) and shoot the city more haphazardly, in the way a non-photographer might. With the camera’s (very) inaccurate viewfinder, soft focus lens, and lack of manual controls, I could try to ‘just’ feel the city around me.

The images below are what that experiment (a half day of walking around with a disposable camera in Vancouver) yielded…