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Duane Prentice spent five years documenting lives in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He urges "the courage to see things as they are."
Documentary photographer Duane Prentice spent five years chronicling the lives of addicts, dealers, parents, children, the elderly, activists, sex workers, and others in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. In the Crucible, opened May 28 at The Interurban Galley at 9 East Hastings (open Wednesdays to Saturdays 10 AM to 6 PM).
"The Downtown Eastside is a microcosm where nothing conjured by the imagination is as awesome or baffling as reality," says Victoria-based Prentice. "Obscured by the rhetoric of the war on drugs are individual people's lives and these images demand of us the courage to see things as they are and to not forget."
Here are some thoughts Prentice shared with The Tyee about life in Vancouver's much-photographed poorest neighbourhood. (To view a sampling of Prentice's images click the gallery button on this page.)
On why the exhibit is named 'The Crucible':
First, I was spending time with people shooting speedballs - a mix of cocaine and heroin and they prepared their solution by melting it in spoons over their butane lighters. Obviously the image of a vessel made of material that does not melt easily and is used in melting other substances came to mind. Plus the crucible of their addiction led them to a hollow place.
Over years of following the trials and tribulations in the same peoples' lives I was witness to their struggles and their addictions, a secondary definition for crucible came to be of importance; that of a severe test of the most decisive kind; a severe trial or situation in which conventional forces interact to come and influence change to produce something new.
In addition to reflecting the struggle of individual lives, the crisis in Vancouver of missing women and overdose deaths represented its own crucible on a larger scale: How were we going to respond to this challenge which would effect not only the destiny of those among us who are struggling with substance abuse, mental health issues and the condition of poverty but also our destiny as a society.
We currently live in a crucible.
On documenting the lives of marginalized people:
In my work, I long ago realized I had to choose between being an activist and being a photographer. Walking that line, is a very delicate one because obviously the work that challenges me and sparks my creative fires is witnessing and documenting the lives of people that mainstream media so often overlook.
[Famous war photographer] Robert Capa's now famous remark, "If your images are not strong enough, then you are not close enough to your subject," remains true. I am extremely grateful to the access that Earl, Brian, Victoria, Morris, Leanne, Al, Kathy and her family, and so many others gave me to sharing in their lives. Although this is my eye, this is their story. It is very much a cooperative endeavour and could never have been accomplished without their dedication to seeing this story to fruition.
On searching for hope in a harsh place:
Don't forget, the issues of substance abuse, mental health, access to medical care, homelessness and poverty, are not the Downtown Eastside's alone; I find them in every city I visit and it does not take long to figure out where it is in Victoria, Winnipeg, Toronto or Halifax.
There are 180 images at the show, thirty-five 16 x 20 prints and a 145 image DVD presentation, and let's say I shoot at 1/60 sec for arguments sake, that means that we are witnessing 3 seconds of life in the DTES. What's that? Yet the still photo today remains an invitation to pay attention, to reflect and learn, and to examine the reasons we excuse such suffering.
We can choose to speed by it or we can stop and see what is happening. It is normal to turn away from something that disturbs us - we know these things are happening and we should be bothered by it - but not shocked nor anaesthetized by it.
My images are not going to change the situation in the DTES. There are a great many wonderful photographers who built their careers in the Middle East and the problem there is no closer to resolution. There is simply too much injustice in the world to imagine photos really changing it. It doesn't mean that our work should not be done. On the contrary, the need for great reportage in a sea of consumer pulp is critical. Wouldn't that be wonderful though, can you imagine, if that, upon realizing of some injustice somewhere, documentation of it would make it go away.
Looking into the lives of people like Victoria and Leanne is witnessing survivors; their strengths are so much more formidable when we realize the steps they walk in everyday.
Duane Prentice has been a full time documentary photographer since 1996. His assignments have taken him throughout the Americas, East Timor, Sudan and the Middle East as well as India and Mongolia. His work includes projects for Médecins Sans Frontières and Orbis International Flying Doctors. In the Crucible won a 2001 National Press Photographer's Association Honourable Mention in the Magazine Feature Story Category. Visit his website at: http://www.nomadicvisions.com/
Amy Walker is at-large editor for The Tyee's Fisheye gallery section. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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Eddy Haskel (not verified)
8 years ago
It's odd that so many people have an opinion of an image of the downtown eastside but few have ever been there to see for themselves. Perhaps Duane's exibit will help dispell some stereotypes.
wellherewegoagain (not verified)
8 years ago
The downtown east side if a poverty pimping multidimensional black hole. If we got the millions spent in the downtown east side and actually spent on the people directly (e.i. give the money directly to medical facilities to care for the sick), give the money directly to a co-op house to create homes for all, give education to those that are unemployeable, we would put thousands of poverty people pusher and place these slime pimpers on the street. did you know that most women that died in the pig farm were barred from the DTES women's center? Go figure...
wellherewegoagain (not verified)
8 years ago
The poor, the homeless, the mentally ill and the drug addicts are just pawns in the hands of a society that is mean and cruel.
Dear Wellherewe (not verified)
8 years ago
It's an interesting thought you raise about spending more directly on the things it's supposed to be for. Some years ago I read a statistic about welfare spending; that it cost $40,000 to provide a single mother with $18,000. You know, what with buildings and staff and lots and lots of administrators and a whole ministry with all THAT entails.
Then, if the single mother finds a way to start earning a little money, maybe start to pry her family out of this horrible hole she's caught in, they grab the money from her and kick her back in. Like how dare she presume to think she might have any right to better herself. I mean that part of the $40 grand was spent making damn good and sure she stayed bloody poor.
And all the time, if they just gave her the 40Gs, in housing she could rent to own, and child care so she could take courses, and work and get help, feed and clothe the kids decently, maybe network with other people in the same hole to offer mutual support and stuff. Then she might actually get herself a new start, build up a life and a future and be a real part of things.
You do that, and after a few years shes not poor any more, she can contribute and pay taxes and all. And all for the same money. Maybe even less.
This would even work for the damaged souls who inhabit the saddest parts, the schizophrenics, the FAS and post trauma sufferers, the abused and abandoned who are the prey of the ones who are really mean and cruel. $40,000 could go a long way to help somebody like that get straight and start to set up a life that might be easier to survive than the one in those pictures up above there.
Heather (not verified)
8 years ago
I have always believed and said that poverty is big business and single parents trying to support their children are the biggest providers of income to middle income earners. Single parents get little or nothing from the system in the way of help, but there are so many people earning big money by working in a field that is supposed to "help" single parents.I remember when Grace McCarthy and the Socreds brought in the Family Maintenance program that was supposed to help single parents collect child care payments from their spouses. One would think that Grace would have hired and trained single parents to do this job - after all wouldn't they best know the circumstances that other single parent face. However that never happened. While she hired middle class workers who made a damn good living off the backs of these single parents,the single parents themselves often were harrased and left farther behind than previously.
Paul of Nanaimo (not verified)
8 years ago
Why is it that when we speak of poverty we see photos (images) of filth and trash? The communities seem to accept this without qualm. Perhaps, if the government and caring citizens would insist that the Public Works departments go into those areas and clean them up on a daily basis, as they do the more affluent area, this would be one step to assisting those in poverty. A regular scrubbing, of these areas, would attract money and thus create jobs etc.
carol (not verified)
8 years ago
i have worked at the women centre for many years and i got to know alot of these women and all those others who still access the centre. i don't think the person who wrote this about the women being barred from the centre is trying to do. The centre is a well needed place for the women of the downtown eastside. i would like to meet you if you have the gall to face me in person and i speak the truth about women being barred from there. It is usually the very last resort that is used. Before spreading gossip such as this and then going out into the community and actively saying this is on the internet does no justice to those who use the centre. This is a very sensitive issue for me because i knew some of those women and i was also volunteering my time to help support the families of these women's family. I will just say one thing " there is no lie in the truth." Wishing all those a very good day and thanks for allowing me to submit my comment.
anne cameron (not verified)
8 years ago
Interesting to me is how similar the issues and opinions here are to the ones over at Elaine Briere's article on the canoe nations... poverty, and our response to it, is the same regardless of the colour of your skin, the shape of your eyes... and , as with the native people and the issues confronting them, here, again , we have a bureaucracy with middle class people "in charge" of a system which was never set up to work, but only to continue the many problems... thus guaranteeing steady pay checques for the few. And so what if some women were barred from the Women's Centre... let's give credit where it is due and not slag the many volunteers who have given so many hours of their time, effort, energy and concern to how many other women who were not so damaged their behaviour was intolerable... I was , for years, on the board of directors of a women's transition house and not every client was pleasant, not every client was appreciative and not every client was even nice! None of that obviated the need for the transition house. Not all of that cancelled the good the house delivered. I wonder if we can find a way to constructively criticize what isn't working without being mean-spirited to those who are at least out there trying!
wellherewegoagain (not verified)
8 years ago
Can Carol and all the others take the courage to read the report published on the investigation on the women? Also the volunteers has nothing to do with the decisions of paid staff. Homeless and mentaly ill people are barred from facilities everyday. Go and ask? It is a reality. I stand by it. It is part of the investigations if you like it or not.
oiuyt (not verified)
8 years ago
taxpayers still pay cash to the people in downtown eastside so addicts buy drugs off pushers natch,curiously non transferrable food and shelter vouchers could provide basic support if the administration wanted to end the cash flow to organized crime but no cash is still the way why? does the province know something essential most observers over look? the drug distributors do collect cash and do purchase big ticket items on the aboveground market such as suv's check it out 40% of sales are believed to be by this marketing niche group adding to the revenue of vehicle dealers and tax collectors. aint life grand the rich get richer and richer as does the province. do not anticipate any change soon it this ad hoc structure moms the word you didn't read it here no no not here!!!