From 1934 to 1979, street photographer Foncie Pulice set up his camera on Vancouver city sidewalks and snapped candid shots of people strolling by. For almost half a century, he took thousands of photos, unwittingly capturing moments in time, the history of a city, and the lives of British Columbians.
Now documentary filmmaker Melanie Wood and British Columbia’s Knowledge Network are bringing these photographs together – collecting them from albums around the province and giving them a public home. Photo negatives of Foncie’s images do not exist. He destroyed most of them when he retired. Until now there was no central archive or collection.
Some thoughts from the subject of this 1940's Foncie photo:
"This photo was taken when me and my future wife , Pauline Sofko, were on our way to her graduation exercise for the St.Pauls Nurses and Lab Technicians. Our love story was we had been high school sweethearts, broke up, and one of my close friends was asked to take Pauline to her grad party. He agreed and then had to back out due to an unexpected commitment. He told me it was a blind date and shortly after I found out it was my previous girlfriend.
Anyway we continued together and this August 31st are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary with our two children and four grandchildren.
What a memory. We presently live in Squamish."
This is a story about Vancouver, about British Columbia, and about it’s people... so they need your help. Visit Knowledge.ca/FonciesCorner to add your photos and stories to the collection.
We're sharing a couple of Foncie photos here on V.I.A. each week leading up to the premiere of the documentary film being released in the summer. Share your memories (or the ones you find in your parents' and grandparents' archives) and become a part of Vancouver’s history!
