VANCOUVER, B.C. - An air of excitement and anticipation was palpable on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Saturday morning as hundreds of people -- some pushing shopping carts -- jostled to get green slips of paper to enter a photographic contest.
The coveted slips gave those lucky enough to get one of the 200 available entries into a contest that will ultimately result in the production of the 2009 Hope in the Shadows calendar.
It's become one of the best-known photography competitions in Canada.
And each year, the contest yields thousands of photos from which 12 will be picked to be in the now-famous calendar.
"It basically touches everybody in the Downtown Eastside,'' said John Richardson of PIVOT Legal Society, a homeless advocacy group that founded the project six years ago.
It's an annual event that brings together to disparate and dispossessed in what is arguably Canada's poorest neighbourhood.
That distinction, though, was lost on those waiting in line to get the disposable cameras for the three-day photo shoot that wraps up Tuesday.
No, on this day, the poverty was put on hold and smiles and laughter were the order of the day as folks jostled to get into the gallery where boxes of disposable cameras awaited.
The fact the cameras might be traded for something else in this poverty-stricken and drug-ridden neighbourhood is not lost on the competition organizers.
But, contestants have the incentive of getting five bucks when they hand the cameras in with their shots.
"People want to win,'' Richardson said, ''You can't win if you don't turn in your camera.''
It was such a trade, though, that Gertrude Harris and Harry Ashley say it garnered them an honourable mention in the 2005 calendar.
They traded some clothes for a camera and Harris snapped a couple of shots of Ashley pulling bottles from a bin.
"We actually didn't even try to win anything,'' Harris chuckled. "I just wanted to take pictures of him because they said they would return the pictures to us.''
Ashley says they found out on the street that they had won a prize.
''We were really surprised,'' Harris says.
"I'm a bit of a camera buff,'' Harris adds with a laugh as she clutches her green slip.
And, there'll be no trades for her this year, she says. She's getting in right at the start.
The theme for this year's contest is What Do You Value in Your Community?
"What do you personally like about living in the Downtown Eastside,'' Richardson told the crowd of folks eager to get their cameras and start snapping.
"There's lots of dark things and lots of hard things but as well this is a community like no other community in Vancouver. People know each other. People see each other in the street.
"This contest is about showcasing all those things.''
Richardson says the photos can also dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about the Downtown Eastside.
"It gives people who don't live in the Downtown Eastside a different way of seeing the community. It kind of challenges a lot of stereotypes people have. This contest gives people a different window into the community.''
With 27 shots on each disposable camera and 200 handed out, the professional judges could have to choose 40 pictures for the shortlist from a potential 1,080 entries.
"Those 40 are put on display in the Downtown Eastside and everybody in the community gets to vote,'' Richardson says. "Everybody in the top 40 gets a prize. From that top 40, twelve will be selected and those will go into the calendar.''
In addition to getting a shot in the calendar, Richardson says, the first prize is $500 in cash.
Then there's the five $100 second prizes and 10 third prizes of $50
''And, they get the chance to be famous,'' he says.
The success of the project also extends to the street vendors who hawk the calendars throughout the city.
"I think they sold about $110,000 or $120,000 worth of calendars last year,'' Richardson says. "Half of that went into the pockets of the people who were actually doing the selling. The other half went into recouping the costs of the calendar.''
With the growing success of the calendar, Richardson says the print run may have to be increased.
"We ran out of calendars about two weeks before Christmas last year,'' he says. "I think we'll probably increase the number of calendars this year.''
The project is run by Hope in the Shadows Corporation, a spinoff of PIVOT.
"We've kind of nurtured it,'' he says. "Every years we have some brilliant photos taken in the neighbourhood.''
