1979 Archives - The Image Journey

Published March 24, 2019 by avardw

Edmonton, Alberta in 1979

Klondike Days, 1979, — Klondike Days, Edmonton, Alberta, 1979 – © Avard Woolaver

I worked in Alberta in the summer of 1979–a summer job on the railway gang and a break from my studies at Acadia University. I managed to get into Edmonton a few weekends that summer and was eager to photograph in an urban environment as I had been living in the small town of Wolfville and hadn’t done much city photography.

I would stay at a dive hotel off Jasper Avenue in Edmonton called the Gateway Hotel (now long gone)–$15 a night, or $16 with a small black and white TV. It was the most basic of accommodation but such a feeling of freedom and independence. I was twenty years old and free to explore the city with my camera–my Jack Kerouac days. And being alone was a big part of it. Photography for me, has mostly been a solitary pursuit. I don’t prefer to be with others when I’m wandering with my camera.

I remember the city being really quiet on Sundays. Almost no stores were open, but you could see a movie, go to the library, or to a restaurant. I saw Woody Allen’s Manhattan that summer and heard Blondie’s Heart of Glass for the first time in a department store. Alberta seemed like the wild west in some ways–lots of red necks driving pick-up trucks. But Edmonton is quite a cultural center with a thriving arts scene. I really enjoyed my time there.

Alberta, 1979, — Edmonton, Alberta, 1979 – © Avard Woolaver

Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, 1979, — Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, 1979 – © Avard Woolaver

Kinsmen Park, Edmonton, Alberta, 1979, — Kinsmen Park, Edmonton, Alberta, 1979 – © Avard Woolaver

Black and White Blogging Film Photography Photography

1979 Alberta Edmonton photography street photography

Published March 21, 2019 by avardw

Forty years ago in 1979

Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, 1979 – © Avard Woolaver

My life was quite different forty years ago in 1979. I remember some of that time, but a lot is forgotten. But photographs have a way of bringing the past into sharp focus in a way that almost nothing else can. A moment in 1979, frozen in time.

In 1979, I was in my second year at Acadia University living in residence at Chipman House. I had bought my first guitar–a used Marlin for $25. (This guitar is a Korean knockoff of the legendary Martin guitar–I still play that guitar to this day.) Although I spent some time on my studies, my real passion was taking photographs. Doing assignments for the school paper The Athenaeum was good training and taught me a lot about getting the shot even under difficult conditions. It also taught me the importance of meeting deadlines. We would often be working frantically in the darkroom right up until the last minute before putting the paper to bed.

In the summer of 1979, I got a job working on a railway gang in Wainwright, Alberta. How I got that job, and ended up there is a long and winding story. It was a summer of physical labour, working in the sun doing track maintenance–a good job for a twenty year old. With my photographs, I tried then as I do now, to capture a mood, or a feeling. I didn’t know much back then, but I could recognize good light and at times could capture a moment. It’s what Henri Cartier-Bresson called “a joint operation of the brain, the eye and the heart.”