Waiting for the bus with my kids on Georgia yesterday I was approached by a near-toothless and super-friendly dude named Thomas. He was carrying a blue canvas paperboy’s bag and selling the 2009 Hope in the Shadows calendar. Thomas was as persuasive as they come, and though I really did want to buy one – I just didn’t have any cash. He was understanding, explaining that he knew what it meant to not have cash. So he left me there, warm Starbucks cup in hand, waiting for a bus home to West Van with my boys and feeling liked a dolt. I have been thinking about him ever since.

Hope In Shadows is an inspiring community project that culminates in a photography contest for residents in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The prize-winning photos are then compiled into a calendar that “gives a glimpse of the hope, spirit and courage of people living in Canada’s poorest neighbourhood”. From their website:

“For the past five years, Pivot Legal Society’s annual Hope in Shadows photography contest has empowered residents of the Downtown Eastside by providing them with disposable cameras to document their lives, resulting in more than 20,000 images of the neighbourhood, giving residents an artistic means to enter the ongoing and stormy dialogue over the place they call home.”

HOPE IN SHADOWS fosters local arts and culture, gives residents a sense of pride in their community and builds confidence in participants and photography winners. The exhibition, calendar and high profile media attention promotes understanding of the people who live in this impoverished neighbourhood.

Finally, the selling of the calendar helps hundreds of people both financially and through providing tangible work experience.

The top 40 photographs are on display at the Roundhouse until December 6th.

Calendars can be ordered online here.

The book Hope in the Shadows recently won the 2008 City of Vancouver Book Awards for its thought-provoking essays and stirring photographs that depict life on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Hope in Shadows
by Brad Cran and Gillian Jerome
Arsenal Pulp Press/Pivot Legal Society