Raymond Parker’s debut title, “Eighties Vancouver: A City in Transition,” casts an eye over British Columbia’s largest city at a time of fast-paced change.
Through formal photographs (medium format, shot on film), historical notes, and personal diary, “Eighties Vancouver” spans the short period leading up to and including Expo 86, designed to showcase the city to the world. The transportation and communication-themed fair arguably transformed the city overnight—the historic downtown into corridors of steel and glass, and False Creek, site of the world’s fair, from industrial hub to a waterfront condominium community.
Parker's words and pictures preserve a snapshot of a city almost unrecognizable, less than half-a-century later.