The alley behind the West Hotel was littered with needle wrappers the night that Jim was out on alley patrol distributing needles.

Al Stewart, well-known for his scooter and dockside language, retired and moved into subsidized housing.

Victoria applies make-up before working the street. Her apartment is on the second floor of a crack house monitored by a video surveillance camera.

Private security guards surround spokespersons for the Community Alliance, a group of DTES residents and merchants who organised an anti-drug march.

4 a.m Staff at End of Shift. In September 2003, Vancouver Coastal Health partnered with the Portland Hotel Society to open INSITE - North America's first legal supervised injection site.

Garry lights candles in memory of his girlfriend Heather Chinnock and the disappeared women from the DTES. Heather died at the Pickton Farm.

A member of VANDU (Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users) on needle exchange walks up an alley at sunset.

In response to a Community Alliance anti-drug march, other community members demonstrate for safe injection sites and affordable housing.

Dennis woke up dope sick and wanders the rainy streets.

"The Downtown Eastside", says the photographer, "is a microcosm where nothing conjured by the imagination is as awesome or baffling as reality."