Unexpected glimpse of hope in the DTES

Vancouver - October 18

The Downtown Eastside is not a place Vancouverites usually think of as a place children might call home, but several of the top places in this year’s Hope in Shadows Photography Contest went to local children.

Prize money, a certificate and an enlarged copy of each picture was presented by Pivot Legal Society lawyer David Eby to all exhibition winners at the annual award ceremony at the Carnegie Community Centre yesterday.

“There is so much strength in this neighbourhood, despite everything that its residents must endure,” says Eby. “Many of the photograph subjects and the photographers themselves are under housed or homeless, yet an observer would never guess that from the hope these images convey.”

The community-building contest has consistently grown in popularity since its inception in 2003. With this year’s theme of “My Home and Friends,” the focus on housing shows people who live outside the Downtown Eastside that there is a real community in Canada’s poorest neighbourhood.

The 2006 contest’s overall winner, 14-year-old Hannah Walker, explained how she got her winning photograph of her neighbours Desiree (three years old), Evan (one year old) and Samjan, her cat: “This was taken in front of Aurora’s house on the front steps. These kids are the youngest of the 16 kids on the block and are best friends.”

Hannah, who is in Grade 10 at Britannia Secondary and plans to become a professional photographer or actor when she grows up, loves her neighbourhood. “I moved to the Downtown Eastside when I was one year old, and grew up here with my four younger sisters. I have grown close to the history, character, people and sense of community here in the Downtown Eastside, but after all it is my home! I love it here.”

In July, 200 cameras were distributed to low-income residents of the Downtown Eastside. The images captured by the participants are raw and real, yet unfailing in their hope and spirit. The photos submitted were judged by a volunteer panel of professional photographers, who selected the top 42 images from more than 3,000 photographs.

The top 42 were then voted on by community members at the Carnegie Centre in September. A selection of the winning photographs will be featured in Hope In Shadows, the 2007 Downtown Eastside Portrait Calendar.