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Gravy For Main St. Hipster Photographers

Portrait

Local development The Block has a cool little Memelabs contest going on. Vancouverites are invited to submit their best pictures of Main Street, and if you end up as top phodog you score an original print by legendary Vancouver photographer Fred Herzog, the “obsessive documentarian of Vancouver city culture from the 1950s through the 1980s and the subject of a wildly popular retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2007”. Herzog will aid in the selection of the winner, so this is cool beans. Click here for the deets and get uploading.

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There are 12 comments

  2. Prices starting at $500,000 for 1200 sq. feet? And I hate your title for this post Andrew. Why doesn’t “The Block” subsidize some square footage to a local artist, the ones that are displaced by these types of developments in the first placeand have the thing juried by people like Fred? More realistic than silly photo contests. The whole thing is insipid. It really fucking pisses me off in fact. This is the sort of thing that passes for “supporting the arts” around here?

  3. Fair points all, Alex, and my apologies for the title. Not our best…

  4. Someone commented on said subject on Beyond Robson, something to the tune of “I won’t enter some contest to be a part of The Block’s street team”. A very astute criticism I thought. From the memelabs website:

    “We design, target, run and advertise your online contest, and you reap the rewards. Spread awareness of your brand, message or initiative while reaching out and retaining your target demographic; inspire them, communicate with them, and keep them coming back. You can do it all with Memelabs.”

    So people that can afford $500,000 condos allow themselves to traipse around my neighborhood snapping “pics” and get to feel like artists for a day? Who wouldn’t want to feel like that, I suppose. But this sort of thing seems like fallout from the “marketing to the creative classes” handbook.

    I say, leave cultural production to the artists. Surely, the target audience here could afford to pick up one of Fred’s photographs? They are depressingly affordable for how incredible they are. Purchase a bit of “cred” for your off-Main street loft!

  5. I own two businesses on Main Street, have more than a passing interest in art-photography, and would rather stab myself in both eyes than participate in a “contest” like this.

    Local development The Block came around to take a picture of the front window of my bookstore, which I now see being used as evidence of the neighborhood’s coolness, and as justification for $500,000+ condos. As usual, the artists and writers and musicians who worked hard for years to make the neighborhood interesting are forced out by rising rents, receiving nothing more than a pat on the back for creating a “cool” place for the Kits and Yaletown overspill to move to.

    I agree with Alex M. above — using the arts to put a shiny aestheticized spin on development is cynical, conservative, and definitely NOT worth supporting. Count me out.

  6. @Chrisopher Brayshaw – Change is coming to that area whether you like it or not. It is the next hot spot in Vancouver and you can either support a development which promotes art and creativity in the neighbourhood or you can bitch and moan about it. In 5 years when your stores are reaping the rewards of the increased foot flow and having more affluent people living in the area, Im sure you will be happy.

    I dont see this as anything other than a contest to promote a brand. Yes…its trying to sell stuff but at the end of the day no one is forcing you to enter. If you choose to enter then you have the chance for your photography to be seen by thousands and maybe even win a Herzog.

    Im going to enter when i get the chance.

  7. Its not the change that is bothersome. In addition its not the contest that riles me. Its the marketing techniques veiled as support for the arts. As an artist I am aware of my role in gentrification. What is tired here is that this “contest” is nothing more than participatory content creation for advertisers. I’ll restate what I said in a preceding comment: If these investors think that hiring a marketing firm to promote their brand through throwing a contest is a serious showing of support for the arts they are completely deluded.

    What the bloody hell is “The Block” anyway? A clandestine group of investors who got together and by consensus hired another group of faceless people to create a highly generalised brand identity? Why aren’t there names and faces involved here? If this group of people want to show support for the arts in Vancouver then why not build something a little more tangible or useful?

    Why can’t housing just be housing anymore? You build a building and ideally, people move into it. Is it that competitive of a market that every single developer has got to hire a branding consultant?

  8. I’m one of the people who works for Memelabs. I also live on Main Street.

    Chris, Main Street IS gentrifying. And Alex M., your question is more plaintive than sincere–why can’t housing be just housing anymore? Why would it be? That doesn’t value human experience, promote art, or give the people IN the community where new homes are being built a chance to be a part of something fun, creative and potentially rewarding.

    I was genuinely delighted when a client chose to do something community-minded for once. That’s right, I said “community-minded.” This contest asks members of a community to explore and examine their own neighbourhood. It presents tangible and useful ways for photographers to gain recognition–either in the gallery of the contest, or in a published book. It offers a chance to engage with photographic master Fred Herzog, and to own a valuable and historically significant photograph.

    You could argue that there aren’t faces or names involved, but then you might run into me at Our Town and feel a bit embarrassed.

    Yes, it’s a contest put on by a real estate development. And yes, it’s trying to do something positive. I believe that this is a good thing.

  9. By my estimation any contest that motivates people to engage in their community through artistic avenues is good. What does it matter that some (large or small) part of the impetus for the contest has to do with increasing the viability of a development (that will come whether they choose to explore ways of integrating with the neighbourhood or not). This contest might be the thing that gives one individual the confidence or opportunity to become an artist, or get to know a neighbour or simply appreciate the texture or their neghbourhood. Why focus on the negative?

    Why is this perceived as a ‘marketing technique veiled as support for the arts’. Is there some kind of secret document that outlines what support or the arts must look like.

    You know what is “insipid”: it’s the way hipsters snobs reject everything… I don’t even know how to end that sentence – they just reject everything. Nothing is cool. Nothing holds promise. Everything is shit.

    You aren’t being forced to participate. Lighten the fuck up.

  10. “hipster snobs”

    Equating criticism with snobbery is laughable.

    I’ve had enough though. Please carry on without me.

  11. Sorry, I’m a bit late to the game, but I notice Grace wrote “That’s right, I said “community-minded.””

    Oh come on, we all know there is going to be a Subway and a Money Mart below the building in no time. Let’s not pretend that a new condo development has any interest in the community, especially in the artistic side of it. One only has to look at the examples set by the previous attempts to capture a vibrant area’s vibe and distill it into an apartment complex. They have all FAILED. This is why Vancouver is the most boring city in the fucking world (except for people who just moved from Barrie Ontario and other “middle of knowhere” towns across Canada). Going to Our Town and living on Main has nothing to do with the local “scene,” sorry if that crushes your ambitions. If namedropping a coffee shop and mentioning that you live on the street is the depth of your interest in the area, you’re lost and have bought into the marketing bullshit spread by companies like the one you work for, hook line & sinker. Anyway, don’t let me keep you, I don’t want to take away from your wireless Macbook and coffee bonding time.

  12. I came across the article written here and I must say that I was a bit confused by some of the comments but, I tend to agree with others.

    Firstly, Staphanie Vacher innocently commented that she would love to win a Herzog print. Who could disagree? Any Vancouverite would love a Herzog print.

    Alex .M wondered aloud why there isn’t more support for local/displaced artists. I agree with this as well, but whose responsibility is this? Sadly, I like so many others have never received a cent from anyone, let alone a building company. I think we can agree that it would be nice if the government truly stepped up. Alex also added “I say, leave cultural production to the artists. “- This, I’m not entirely sure I agree with. I understand the underlying point, but who is to say who is and isn’t an artist.

    I’m sorry how Christopher Brayshaw feels the way he does. In many ways he’s right. I try to support local business (including his) and having only an average job myself with no chance of ever owning my own property , contests such as these are often the last thing I consider entering… but come on, a Fred Herzog.

    It would seem to me that Paul feels the same way about this contest as I do. No one is being forced and no one is simply trying to support “The Man” here. Perhaps those that entered just like photography, perhaps they just like entering contests. Not everyone is an uninformed halfwit.

    Erin T just plain cracked me up. Erin is right on so many levels- most importantly that you just have some fun. As a contributor to this contest, that’s all I wanted to do; I got my 8 votes, checked out other shots and crossed my fingers. I didn’t, however misguided it may seem, feel funny about entering a contest put on by a company. However, Alex might be right about one thing- “Equating criticism with snobbery is laughable. “. This isn’t to say that there aren’t snobs floating about around Vancouver.

    Mike was a bit harsh… funny but harsh.

    Truth be known, I won this thing and I was interested to see what people thought about the contest before the “winner” was named. I hope that as someone that has lived and worked in and around Main and the Vancouver area for as long as I have, that people wouldn’t think of me as an arsehole, hipster (this one is funny if you knew me) or some greedy rapacious scallywag.

    Take it for what it is: a contest with a cool prize that revolves around a place that we all love.

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