The littlest human in this photo writes:
"My Grandfather and I were on our way to Stanley Park and changed buses nearby when Foncie took our photo. I was just a youngster from Ocean Falls and couldn't figure out why the man took our photo. From Stanley Park we walked across the Lions Gate Bridge. At about midway across the bridge, scraps of burned paper started falling out on us from the sky. It turned out they were from the explosion of the munitions ship Greenhill Park in Vancouver harbour."
The story behind the man who captured this photo? Well, 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. Photo negatives of Foncie’s images do not exist. He destroyed most of them when he retired. Until recently there was no central archive or collection.
Documentary filmmaker Melanie Wood and British Columbia’s Knowledge Network changed that by bringing these photographs together – collecting them from albums around the province and giving them a public home online and in the film Foncie's Corner. The photos continue to stream in and Melanie shares them with us regularly so we can share them here on our blog.
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.
