Fonice Pulice is Vancouver. Rather, he was Vancouver.
A post-World War II street photographer, hed engage you with a look and in return he hoped youd give him a smile before he snapped your photo and handed you a ticket. Youd take the ticket to his Granville Street shop and you buy your photo a great one, no doubt. It was a luxury in the days when not everyone could afford a camera.
Its estimated he took 15 million photos over his career, although most were destroyed by the man himself.
What I love about the photos is the sense of forward momentum, says Jane Seidl, curator of Foncies Fotos at the Museum of Vancouver, where an exhibit on Pulices work and life is being held. Ideally, he wanted to catch you mid-stride, just taking a step... hes caught them at their most, sort of, optimistic. With some kind of momentum in their lives.
Especially when they give him a big smile back, it captures people at a very happy, forward-thinking movement.
Foncies exhibit is a one-room knockout, featuring the mans camera, photos and artifacts.
Pulice destroyed the negatives to give peole an incentive not to delay dropping by his studio. This was his livelihood and he needed you to know there was an expiry date on your interest.
He also turned no one away, because everyone had a face and everyone was worth the flash of his camera.
I think his legacy is his portrait of the city during the mid-century, Seidl says. He was a real democrat with his camera. Everyone was a potential customer.
He was completely colour blind, in a way that I think a lot of photographers were not, in that time period.
Foncies Fotos exhibit runs at the Museum of Vancouver until January 5, 2014. Meanwhile, after asking viewers to share the photos that Pulice took of them, Vancouvers Knowledge Network is showcasing the premiere of Melanie Woods documentary Foncies Photos on August 5 at 8pm. She uses Pulices street photography to trace a timeline through the heart of Vancouver and tell a peoples history of changing life in Canadas western-most metropolis.
The Museum is also holding an exhibit called Sex Talk and the City, which runs until September 2, and is a provocative display of one aspect of Vancouvers history.
Our mission statement is, that we hold a mirror up to the city and lead provocative conversations about its past, present, and future, says Seidl.
By Kolby Solinski
