Churches of Vancouver

I'm in the very early stages of a project i'm working on where I am documenting the
churches of Vancouver. I'm a little shocked just how many churches there are, there are almost a dozen within a 5 minute walking distance of my house which is slightly outside of downtown in Mount Pleasant.

Considering Vancouver is suppose to be Canada's most 'modern' 'contemporary' 'cosmopolitan' city, the only exception being maybe Montreal I was surprised to find so many religious fanatics here. I have experienced so many door to door recruiters, preachers on street corners and just downright crazy people spurting scripture at me on transit. Moving from Ireland, which is still a very catholic country, I was surprised to find myself subjected to way more religious self-righteousness here in Canada.

Being surrounded by churches is nothing new, however the only difference is the Churches back home are actually quite beautiful coming from and architectural and historical point of view. Here they are extremely tacky and tasteless often resorting to massive lighting fixtures or crucifixes to stand out amongst the uniform suburban neighborhoods. Most locals would not bat a eyelid at this, however sometimes I cannot even believe someone actually got paid to build these designs.

This project, as already stated, is in the very early stages, I have only captured the churches closest to my house, my goal is to capture at least 3-5 churches a week and see where the project takes me.

Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated

Comments

Christmas Day Vancouver 2016

Capturing a city's busiest streets completely void of all life is not an easy task unless you digitally manipulate your images. No matter what time of day or what time of year you will usually find enough people and cars to ruin your shots. From my experience I have found that there is a two hour window on Christmas morning to best achieve these shots. For 11 years now I have set up my camera and tripod in the middle of the city center at first light. My Project started in Dublin, Ireland and continued on to Vancouver. This was my 5th Christmas in Vancouver.

Christmas Day 2019 - Dublin Revisited

In 2005 I attempted to capture the busiest streets of Dublin utterly void of life. Despite many efforts on different days at different times, I could never capture the images I wanted in daylight without digital manipulation. I discovered that there was a sweet spot to achieve the desired effect; 1-2 hours on Xmas morning. Since this discovery, I have set up my tripod and camera at first light every Xmas morning with the project evolving over several cities. 2019 was the first time I've been back to Dublin for Xmas since I left in 2012, so naturally, on Xmas morning at first light, I got to revisit the empty streets where it all started. Dublin 2005 - 2011 Vancouver 2012 -2017 Seattle - 2018 Dublin 2019 Kenopsia ~ The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet. ...

Christmas Day Vancouver 2013

Capturing a city's busiest streets completely void of all life is not a easy task unless you like to digitally manipulate your images. No matter what time of day or what time of year you will usually find enough people and cars to ruin your shots. From my experience I have found that there is a two hour window on Christmas morning to best achieve these shots. For eight years now I have set up my camera and tripod in the middle of the city center at first light. My Project started in Dublin, Ireland. If you would like to see images from Dublin please visit my website www.derekbermingham.com This was my second Christmas in Vancouver.

Derek Bermingham Photography

Search This Blog