While living in Mexico City in the early 60s and 70s I had a German friend who would call me up and we would go on local photography safaris. They were exciting because we would go to old churches, parts of Mexico City and in the outskirts. What we did was and is street photography. I never did go (I kept forgetting) to the Panteón Dolores which is an exquisitely old cemetery in Mexico City.

When you are faced with shooting street photographs in a place like Vancouver I find it relatively boring because it is comforting (?) in its familiar blandness. Besides a few old gravestones in the cemetery on 41^st and Fraser I find it bleak for inspiration.

This is why I have rarely ever gone out with my camera in this city and take street photographs. I avoid cityscapes (during the day and in the evening) fireworks and sunsets.

My interest lies in the portrait in my studio where I control the light and decide when to take the picture. I do not wait for something to happen.

I believe that if Henri Cartier-Bresson hopped on a time machine from the past to Vancouver in our present he would be filing for employment insurance within a month.

So I understand why when Vancouver photographers go to Perú, or India or Mexico why they shoot lots of street stuff. The not-so-familiar is interesting.

In today’s blog I have two photographs, one I took in 1987 and the other a week ago. I shot both at Macy’s. 

I believe that each photograph, by itself is boring. But the juxtaposition of them both and with time having passed makes them a tad more interesting.