13-1-11

Monuments will often distort scale such that the viewer has to raise their eyes to view such things. It’s a power structure modifier, being forced to look up to something regardless of your respect for said thing. The telephone poles in the laneways of Vancouver are monuments unique to this city.

Icons. The words “telephone pole” roll off the tongue without consideration. It’s automatic. But telephones are obsolete, in the wired sense. These wires carry electricity, or The Internet ™, or the odd antiquated phone line. These telephone poles exist in contrast to their namesake. Electricity too is held up by these structures so they aren’t completely obsolete.

Sub-plot. There are tennis shoes hanging from the power line, but obviously not the focal point, and perhaps accidental but they are there. To acknowledge the role of “icon” the tennis shoes represent the urban mythology, an acceptance of weightier narratives associated with simple constructs. Is it a sign of drug dealers? Is it a memorial to a gang member killed in that alley? All are possible and flaunted by the condo dwellers looking for street cred.

Compositionally the rule of thirds is broken but alluded to. The lack of convention is completely undermined by the submissiveness of the mass at the focal point of the bottom right third in contrast to an obvious half-ing of the composition. It’s a tension resulting from submission, in a state of peace it is revolting.

Even the medium is to be considered. Digital photography fighting with an analogue construct that has been subverted to transporting digital media. Tensions abound. And it’s all hung off a structure that is 50 years old in design and, considering how long it takes to grow a tree, even older at conception. The seedling that now holds up technology transporting truck loads of data flying down wires made of sand probably (literally) took root at a time that couldn’t fathom the present in which it eventually landed. No tree ever expects to be planted in asphalt.

Then there’s an idea about civic identity. Vancouver has few unique features but one of them is the iconic laneway infrastructure. KenFoster makes a living painting alleys, if living homeless on the streets can be considered “making a living”, which is analogous to the value that Vancouver puts on the arts in general at a time when a rare live music and arts venue is being turned into more overpriced condominiums.  And so an artistic attempt at a time when art communitiesare being gentrified, taken of a telephone pole in a gentrifying neighborhood, is subversive in its submissiveness.

And then there’s unification. Despite the individuality of residents of this neighborhood, regardless of the dispute you have with your neighbor, or how much you abhor Starbucks, you share this connection, you are literally wired to them through this structure. There are controls, and these poles are controls, so there will be minimal overlapping despite the tethering. But still.

Since December 31, it’s the first colour photograph and the first photograph I’ve taken without a recently reacquired 24mm lens I had lent to a good friend. It’s a revisiting of my love for a 35mm focal length so nostalgia and understanding of a view point taint this image. It’s about understanding at the level of photographer which affects philosophical trajectory. It doesn’t translate directly to the photograph but for the first time in over a week I walked to a point, stopped, raised the camera, and took a photograph. So from the photographer’s perspective there is a peace to this image afforded by an adjustment to the process. And at 35mm instead of 24mm there is a peace to it that is difficult to describe beyond it fitting a refined and preferred perspective. 

Or something like that.