A Tourist In My Own Land
Thursday, April 14, 2016
We (my Rosemary and two daughters) moved from Mexico City to Vancouver in 1975. On contract
I have worked for the CBC, Canadian Pacific Limited, Air Canada and for
Vancouver Magazine. I have photographed politicians, mayors, hoods, cops,
stars, directors, dancers and more.
And yet I look at the mountains (with snow or without) with
the eyes of a tourist. In fact I have felt like a tourist all these years. I
feel I don’t belong.
My trip to Buenos Aires this Thursday will bring a
temporary relief of being with relatives and friends and all in a city that
will be recognizable. There is something to be said for the routine of the
unchanging.
That is not the case in Vancouver. It was only today
(Wednesday) that the City of Vancouver Twitter page posted a question about did
we know that there were two previous incarnations of the Cambie Street Bridge.
My guess is that nobody at City Hall has the memory for the fact that (at least
the second one) it was previously called the Connaught Bridge.
We live in a city with an escaping memory. As the carpet
is rolled out the other end is being rolled in.
The two pictures here I took of Jo-Ann (my former routine
monthly subject on a Thursday) on the roof of my studio on Granville and
Robson. The Farmer Building is gone and when I walk by I feel like a carrier
pigeon lost.
