Fred Herzog: Photos of Vancouver in 1950s and 60s Glory

Kilgore Trout · #1 Posted **Feb 26, 2007, 7:03 AM**

a brilliant exhibition of fred herzog's photographs of vancouver is on now at the vancouver art gallery. i paid it a visit last week and was very impressed. his photos are bright, vibrant and colourful and he focuses on a very gritty and urban side of the city that is often underrepresented.

check out my review of the exhibition here at urbanphoto.

Wooster · #2 Posted **Feb 26, 2007, 7:51 AM**

Very cool. A similar photographic style to yours.

David · #3 Posted **Feb 26, 2007, 8:44 AM**

I definitely don't miss that awful Hotel Vancouver logo in red at the top of the building.

excel · #4 Posted **Feb 26, 2007, 10:39 AM**

Cool exibit. I should go check it out.

murman · #5 Posted **Feb 26, 2007, 3:59 PM**

This exhibit is one of the best I've seen in some time at the Art Gallery. Definitely owe it to yourselves to check it out.

Habanero · #6 Posted **Feb 26, 2007, 5:48 PM**

Fantastic photos. Thanks for posting these.

Stingray2004 · #7 Posted **Feb 26, 2007, 6:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

Excellent photo of Granville Street in its heyday during the '50's when it was known as the "Great White Way" with all the neon signage.

The "White Lunch", in the foreground, with its unique signage was apparently one of the more well known eateries along the strip.

Thanks for posting!

Archiseek · #8 Posted **Feb 26, 2007, 7:29 PM**

very cool....

mezzanine · #9 Posted **Feb 26, 2007, 10:32 PM**

It's a great exhibit (thx for the montage, Kilgore) - i was trying to locate all the shots...

Where is this? I'm guessing it's looking east from somewhere in the west end, as opposed to looking west from DT south (abundance of houses/apartments in foreground)
EDIT - howe and nelson, as on Urbanphoto....

The 'building on the right foreground side of Granville is that used record store. The building has been preserved on the heritage list b/c it has a lot of detailing close up. Herzog also mentioned that 'White lunch', 'white plate' etc. at that time hinted to patrons that the cooks were white, and not chinese...

1037 Robson - Now roots/bebe?

SpongeG · #10 Posted **Feb 26, 2007, 11:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

I definitely don't miss that awful Hotel Vancouver logo in red at the top of the building.

i noticed that too - icky

Kilgore Trout · #11 Posted **Feb 27, 2007, 4:02 AM**

mezzanine, interesting comment about the restaurants. i suspected that something like that was the case, since there seemed to be an odd preponderance of eateries with "white" in their names.

the irony of course is that the most successful of them, white spot, has a lot of pseudo-asian dishes on its menu.

another interesting thing i learned from the exhibition, which i mentioned on urbanphoto, is that vancouver had a black neighbourhood next to chinatown called hogan's alley. unsurprisingly, it was bulldozed for the georgia viaduct in the early 1970s. this was right around the same time that africville was razed in halifax and little burgundy, montreal's black neighbourhood, was decimated by urban renewal.

if canadians don't realize the extent to which blacks have historically been a part of this country, maybe it's because nearly every physical trace of their presence was wiped out from our cities.

before official multiculturalism and the mulroney government's anti-racism policies of the 1980s, canada's non-european communities were really very marginalized. i don't think many people understand just how much things have changed since the 1970s.

SpongeG · #12 Posted **Feb 27, 2007, 4:23 AM**

the tall building is the electra - the cluster of small buildings is gone but they were on seymour street - across from where Nestors market is today

the building to the left is where the days inn is if that is the name of it? just out of the picture is where the Penthouse strip club would be

rgalston · #13 Posted **Feb 27, 2007, 4:35 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

another interesting thing i learned from the exhibition, which i mentioned on urbanphoto, is that vancouver had a black neighbourhood next to chinatown called hogan's alley. unsurprisingly, it was bulldozed for the georgia viaduct in the early 1970s. this was right around the same time that africville was razed in halifax and little burgundy, montreal's black neighbourhood, was decimated by urban renewal.

Winnipeg had a small black neighborhood, too: The Loop, or the Black Belt, which straddled both sides of the CPR mainline just north of downtown. The biggest hit came with the Disraeli "freeway" cut through the neighborhood in the late 1960's, and residential uses in that part of Point Douglas were all but zoned out. I only found this out by accident while looking through newspaper clippings from 25 years ago--this whole small chapter of the city's history is completely ignored.

SpongeG · #14 Posted **Feb 27, 2007, 5:26 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mezzanine

It's a great exhibit (thx for the montage, Kilgore) - i was trying to locate all the shots...

Where is this? I'm guessing it's looking east from somewhere in the west end, as opposed to looking west from DT south (abundance of houses/apartments in foreground)
EDIT - howe and nelson, as on Urbanphoto....

The 'building on the right foreground side of Granville is that used record store. The building has been preserved on the heritage list b/c it has a lot of detailing close up. Herzog also mentioned that 'White lunch', 'white plate' etc. at that time hinted to patrons that the cooks were white, and not chinese...

1037 Robson - Now roots/bebe?

where BEBE is now used to be a fairly old bank predating the 60's i think and where roots is next to it is a fairly tall residential building which is old by vancouver standards - not really visible in the photo

Hourglass · #15 Posted **Feb 27, 2007, 6:13 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

mezzanine, interesting comment about the restaurants. i suspected that something like that was the case, since there seemed to be an odd preponderance of eateries with "white" in their names.

the irony of course is that the most successful of them, white spot, has a lot of pseudo-asian dishes on its menu.

Another irony is that White Spot now has three locations in Hong Kong under 'Triple-Os by White Spot' (franchised, I think). They offer one of the better burgers in Hong Kong. Higher end than the typical White Spot in BC.

Have to wonder what the local HK Chinese population would make of the history behind the name if they knew...

raggedy13 · #16 Posted **Feb 27, 2007, 6:38 AM**

^Whereas I'm sure the White Spot name does have race-related origins, in the restaurants (on the menus?) they have an explanation for their name which says it was originally called White Spot because it was such a clean restaurant, or something along those lines. I would like to believe the clean explanation but it always seemed a bit fishy to me.

Nutterbug · #17 Posted **Feb 27, 2007, 7:01 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

The Buddha was around back in 1958? Punk didn't exist until the 70's. What kind of music did they play back then?

Elwood · #18 Posted **Feb 27, 2007, 4:24 PM**

This exhibit may be an excuse to hop on Westjet for even a daytrip.
Thanks for posting this Chris!

murman · #19 Posted **Feb 27, 2007, 6:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elwood

This exhibit may be an excuse to hop on Westjet for even a daytrip.

'tis

Kilgore Trout · #20 Posted **Feb 28, 2007, 12:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpongeG

the tall building is the electra - the cluster of small buildings is gone but they were on seymour street - across from where Nestors market is today

the building to the left is where the days inn is if that is the name of it? just out of the picture is where the Penthouse strip club would be

the caption says it's howe street, not seymour. so that would mean that the law courts now stand where the houses and small shops are in the photo.