In March I spent a couple of hours with art lover Jim Johnston as he visited OTIC, an aural installation that explores the nature of sound at New Westminster’s innovative New Media Gallery. I shot these photos to accompany an article in Tenth to the Fraser magazine.
Jim Johnston doesn’t look like a patron of the arts. He wears a sweatshirt, baggy pants and a faded and frayed ball cap. A shopping bag is his constant companion.
For years Johnston ran a produce stand at the old Public Market at New Westminster Quay. He currently works at a comic book store.
Every day he makes a point of stopping in to the New Media Gallery at the Anvil Centre to absorb and ponder the latest exhibit. Sometimes he just stays for 15 minutes. Some days he lingers for hours.
But every visit “you feel better for being in here,” he says. “Just to see this, to see something, to be transported.”
Photo by Mario Bartel Jim Johnston waits patiently for propane balls of flame to blast through Carsten Nicolai’s installation, 334m/s, at the New Media Gallery in the Anvil Centre.
Photo by Mario Bartel Jim Johnston, a regular visitor to the New Media Gallery at the Anvil Centre, pauses to listen to the sounds emitting from tiny speakers in Tristan Perich’s installation, Octave.
Photo by Mario Bartel Jim Johnston discussed Adam Basanta’s Pirouette with the co-curator of the New Media Gallery, Sarah Joyce.
Photo by Mario Bartel Jim Johnston is enveloped by soft sound in Jesper Norda’s installation The Centre of Silence, one of four pieces that comprised OTIC at the New Media Gallery in the Anvil Centre. Johnston has become a regular visitor to the gallery.
Photo by Mario Bartel New Media Gallery regular Jim Johnston is always prepared to talk about his ideas and reaction to the installations.
Photo by Mario Bartel Jim Johnston takes in Tristan Perich’s Octave by walking along the panels of tiny speakers that emit sound.
Photo by Mario Bartel Jim Johnston takes in The Cenre of Silence from his favourite position.
The following is adapted from a piece I wrote in 2014 for the NewsLeader’s annual issue of best photographs from the previous year. It was an issue I looked forward to producing as every page was devoted to showcasing my work. It was also an opportunity to reflect on the role images play in telling the community’s stories.
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER The signage for a new condo development at Station Square brightens an otherwise drab day on Wednesday. The cloudy, showery weather is expected to persist through the weekend.
When I came out of journalism school, I was determined to tell stories with a camera.
I’d gone into journalism school four years earlier because my high school teachers said I could write; working for a newspaper seemed a pretty good way to get paid regularly to write.
But during the course of my education I decided I wanted to make the camera my storytelling tool of choice.
Photographers seemed like the cool guys in the newsroom, with their expensive cameras and lenses, the mysterious darkroom where they disappeared at the end of every shift, then reappeared hours later with stacks of fantastic images as if by magic.
Photographers can’t sit in the office and reconstruct events by making phone calls.
Photographers don’t get to hang out in the warmth of press boxes or work rooms. They have to be on the sidelines, lens pressed to the glass at the hockey arena, down in front at the political event.
Let’s face it, Derek Corrigan will never be on the cover of GQ magazine. But this is his second election-night appearance in my yearly photo reviews. I spied this young man getting his cellphone ready as I beckpedaled in front of the mayor upon his arrival at his victory party. I had a feeling I knew what was about to happen, so reframed to be ready for it. He didn’t let me down.
Of course that also means photographers have to endure the rain and cold, jostle for space with other photographers and TV camera operators, have to dodge careening football players.
Photographers climb things or crawl under them to get the best angle. They get dirty. Sometimes they even put themselves in peril; early in my career a photo call to shoot a preview for an upcoming air show ended when the vintage plane from which I was shooting crash landed in a field short of the runway after its engine quit.
But at the end of those sometimes harrowing days, you feel like you’ve been a part of the news; you’ve lived it in a small way, rather than just observed it. And hopefully the photos you took convey part of that experience to readers.
Digital technology has changed the way photojournalists work and thinned the numbers who still get to do this work. It’s changed the perception of the work they do.
But one thing hasn’t changed. Photographers still can’t take pictures from a desk, over the phone. They have to be there.
For a portfolio of some of my favourite storytelling images in New Westminster and Burnaby, click here.
It’s good to have goals; even better to achieve them.
For the past 12 years, my July’s have been defined by my goal to ride 1,000 kilometres in the month.
I came up short in 2009, a sweltering July, and in 2014, for some unknown reason.
But otherwise, it’s been pretty achievable.
Especially as I tend to take two weeks off to get up early to watch the Tour de France then, suitably inspired, spend the rest of the day riding my own bike.
In 2008 I must have been particularly inspired, as I achieved 1,600 km, including 608 in one incredible week!
Eight days ago, my beloved 1,000 seemed out of reach.
The demise of my newspaper meant I’d seen the last of my six weeks’ annual vacation that I’d toiled 20 years to attain. In fact, the beginning of a new job meant no vacation at all.
But two unexpected gift rides last week, and a favourable calendar with a long weekend to close the month, opened the door to the possibility of reaching that 1,000. Good legs, recovered from the gruelling Triple Crown, put me over the top.
To ride those 1,095 km took me 44 hours and 53 minutes; that’s like a full work week plus half a day of overtime!
Beware the dismay of a Fuggitivi denied his first Lunch Doctor experience!
Saturday’s bonus ride was into a strong headwind.
A handy bit of cycling infrastructure at Port Moody’s Rocky Point Park; a bike repair stand with tools and an excellent air pump. Not that there was anything wrong with Lapierre.
Saluting the goat, any the achievement of my annual July riding goal.
Fuel for a busy long weekend riding included this tasty Mexican dish of roasted pepper stuffed with quinoa, beans, roasted corn and green onions.
Of course in the Strava universe, 1,000 km in a month is but a molehill. The month’s distance champion was a woman from Florida, who clocked more than 11,000 km! That means she rode more than 370 km a day, 12 hours of every day of the month!
My legs wilt just at the thought.
As does my brain. Because she did her rides covering laps of the same 20 km circuit, over and over and over again. I can only imagine the mental fatigue and boredom of watching the same countryside roll past hour after hour, day after day, week after week.
Her Strava profile says she has a goal to set a new record for ultra marathon cycling. To achieve that, she’ll have to ride more than 122,432 km by next July 1. Because this was the first month of her challenge.
When Princess of Pavement asked me two days running, “aren’t you going for a ride?” the nature of her enquiry and the way she asked it implied encouragement.
I hadn’t planned to ride.
On Sunday I was scheduled to work on a special project so I was resigned to missing the weekly FRF ride. Instead I went for a solo roll on Friday. When I reminded PofP after her ride query Saturday night, she suggested I could head out early, before I had to work.
Hmmmmmm, free kilometres!? Yes please!
Morning roll-out by dawn’s early light.
Living in an open loft presents challenges for any early or late activities. There’s no door to close to muffle the noise. And while Little Ring has a separate room with a doorway, his senses seem to roust at first light and await any cue that the day is set to begin, especially if that cue indicates breakfast is being prepared.
“Is it morning yet?” he’ll cry out. “I’m hungry.”
So an early-morning ride requires meticulous preparation the night before. That means placing the bike by the door, hanging kit in the bathroom for changing, placing shoes, helmet, gloves and emergency kit somewhere clear of creaking floor boards, honing muscle memory to avoid those noisy floor boards, putting out breakfast utensils and dishes to minimize drawer and cupboard opening, rounding up breakfast ingredients to limit the number of times the fridge has to be opened and closed.
Free kilometres usually mean flat kilometres to maximize their impact on my mileage goals.
The pressure is enormous. One false step, one moment’s inattention could disturb the pre-dawn silence.
The unexpected evening ride, however, usually comes with a peace dividend. It seems Little Ring is more amenable to sticking to his bedtime script when there’s only one of us around; it’s as if he has an innate sense there’s no “good cop” around who will accede to his various nighttime stalling games just to keep the peace.
So when Princess of Pavement asked again on Monday whether I was going for a ride, I was gifted another great big mozza ball of free kilometres.
The sun begins to set at Iona Beach
And while they’ll help get me a little closer to my usual July goal of 1,000 kilometres for the month, I’m resigned that I likely won’t attain it this year. Working at a new job and not having my traditional two weeks holiday during the Tour de France to pile on the rides has been the Yoko Ono to my Strava goals.
Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix transformed Port Coquitlam’s historic downtown into a high speed circuit of lythe, powerful cyclists, carbon fibre, lycra and a whole lot of excitement.
The inaugural Grand Prix is part of BC Superweek, a week-long festival of bike racing in communities around Metro Vancouver that attracts top female and male pro cyclists from across North America and as far away as Australia. In Port Coquitlam, they raced a twisting 1.3 km circuit that circumnavigated the downtown and City Hall.
But the event was more than just a bike race. It was a day-long celebration of cycling with live entertainment, a beer garden, a kids zone, business and cycling expo as well a support races for kids, junior racers, amateurs and corporate teams.
I was hired by the Tri-City News to cover the evening’s feature races as well as capture some of the collateral fun.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO A racer reflects on the start of the women’s race at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Riders speed through the corner of Donald Street and McAllister Avenue during the women’s race at the PoCo Grand Prix on Friday.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The PoCo Grand Prix kids zone provides future racers a chance to hone their skills.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The women’s race speeds along Elgin Avenue.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Gary Mauris, the president of Dominion Lending Centres, fires the starters pistol to start the men’s race at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The men’s race speeds on McAllister Avenue at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO A rider’s elaborate nails prior to the start of the women’s race at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Wheels are lined up for the start of the women’s race at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The women’s race is underway at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix, part of the Superweek series of races around Metro Vancouver that attracts top pro riders from around North America and as far away as Australia.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Women’s race winner Kendelle Jackson celebrates on the podium.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Heidi Ujfalusi rings the bell to signal a “Prime” lap in which riders race to the finish line to claim a cash prize.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The men’s peloton is strung along Shaugnessy Street.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The men’s peloton prepares to turn onto Shaughnessy Street.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The women’s race speeds past the historic railroad mural on Elgin Avenue.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO American Justin Williams celebrates his win in the men’s race with fans along Shaugnessy Street.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Kendelle Hodges celebrates her win in the women’s race at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The men’s race lines up on Shaunessy Street.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Aaron Paddon, 6, concentrates as he negotiates the trials course in the Kids Zone at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Justin Williams celebrates his win in the men’s race.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Sara Bergen speeds down the main stretch at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Spectators along the barriers on Shaugnessy Street cheer on the riders in the women’s race at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The women’s peloton speeds along McAllister Avenue towards the PoCo Court House in Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The Sean Michael Trio performs on the Phoenix Entertainment Stage at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO The bowlers seem to have lost their exclusive parking privileges during Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
MARIO BARTEL PHOTO Doreen Speers cheers on the riders in the women’s race at Friday’s PoCo Grand Prix.
After every ride, I dutifully download the data from my Garmin GPS to the social site that connects riders from around the world who break down their routes into bite-sized segments. Comparing my performance with previous rides can give me an idea of improvements in my own fitness, as well as affirm the sensations in my legs; feeling strong during a climb up Burnaby Mountain isn’t just in my imagination when Strava awards me a Personal Best trophy icon.
Enjoying a baguette and brie on the annual FRF Bastille Day ride.
Earning those little trophies is addictive.
Strava has more than 1.5 million active users. They include cyclists and runners. Logging their activities into the site provides real-time tracking of their performance improvements over segments created by fellow users.
Those segments are also the measure upon which cyclists and runners can compare their performance with others, a sort of giant ongoing virtual race.
Sometimes those virtual competitions can get pretty intense. Setting a new KOM can be conversation fodder in the FRF peloton, a throw-down to other riders.
What’s a celebration of French cycling without baguette and brie?
Not that I ever have to worry about setting or regaining a coveted KOM.
In the Strava world I am famously mediocre. My modest achievements are neither great nor terrible. Inevitably a personal best that I worked hard to attain will end up ranked solidly somewhere in the middle of the pack of all riders who’ve ridden the same segment.
Except for descents. Apparently I can be pretty decent at those; I’ve even managed to crack the top 10 on some, even if briefly.
This Saturday I’ve signed on for the Triple Crown, a challenging ride up Vancouver’s three major mountains, Seymour, Grouse and Cypress. I’ve done all three separately, never on the same day. The route covers 75km with around 2000 metres of climbing.
I’m confident I’ll be able to do it. I’m certain I’ll be slow. I’m scared of the effort it’s going to take.
So instead, I’m going to think of it as three fast and fun descents. Because what goes up, has to come down. Before it can go up again…
The clouds of doom began gathering as soon as the destination for Sunday’s FRF ride was announced.
As we embarked on our ill-fated adventure into cycling’s Heart of Darkness, Delta, they thickened, became more menacing.
Barely over the Bridge of Lost Souls that transports unwitting victims into her lair, never to be seen again, the trouble began. Mike, an FRF newbie on his inaugural ride, flattened. By the time the day was done, the fierce headwind was no longer the topic of our peloton’s consternation; it was Mike’s unprecedented FOUR flats!
An all too familiar scene; the FRF gather around as a flat tire is changed.
Delta is where cyclists get lost, and tires go to die.
The city’s bike routes are deplorable. Not only is their signage inconsistent and often illogical, the lanes are poorly maintained.
It is July, the thick of riding and bike commuting season, and the bike routes are as dirty with gravel and debris as if it was mid-March after a harsh winter of snowplowing and sanding. the sharp stones bite into tires, ricochet into unsuspecting shins, ping off shiny carbon fibre frames and even catapult off passing vehicles. Riding in Delta, especially along busy routes like River Road, is a dangerous game of waving and weaving through a moonscape disguised as a bike lane.
Gravel and stones no the marked bike lane is an invitation to trouble. Routes need to be swept.
Making roads and routes safe for cyclists involves more than just painting white stencils on shoulders. Those lanes should be swept regularly to clear them of the debris and detritus strewn by cars and trucks. A sharp stone squeezed out by a tire at 120psi becomes a missile, capable of gashing shins, chipping paint, flattening tires. Just ask Mike, whom we last saw humping his bike back down the Bridge of Lost Souls, his patience and our peloton’s supply of inner tube and CO2 cartridges exhausted.
Four flats on a single ride is terribly bad luck. In Delta, it’s inevitable.
Photo by Mario Bartel Coun. Bill Harper, the co-chair of the City of New Westminster’s Intelligent City Advisory Committee, examines a section of plastic conduit that will house high-speed fibre optic cable to be installed throughout the city over the next two years. The city will operate its new BridgeNet network as a utility, leasing capacity to private Innternet Service Providers which will then sell connections to business and residential customers.
New Westminster is getting a new highway.
But this one won’t pour even more vehicles off and on the ageing Pattullo Bridge.
This highway moves data.
And, it’s hoped, move British Columbia’s oldest city well into the future.
Tuesday, the City of New Westminster launched its new BridgeNet fibre optic network. When it’s completed in five years, the network of fibre optic cable encased in bright orange plastic conduits buried in the ground will bring gigabit internet to businesses, agencies, industries and residents from Queensborough to Sapperton.
The initiative is the backbone of New Westminster’s “intelligent city” strategy to drive its economic growth over the next 20 years, said Bill Harper, the co-chair of the task force that developed the program in consultation with business, industry and residents.
“You’re going to have to have an intelligent city if you’re going to survive in the modern world,” said Harper.
Gigabit internet capability over fibre optic cable means data can be downloaded at speeds up to 940 megabits per second; conventional internet speeds over existing copper cables range from 10-50 Mbps.
That means more than being able to watch Orange is the New Black on Netflix without pixellating or participating in a multi-player video game without buffering, said Harper. “It’s a process of getting to the next stage of economic development.”
That development will bring new knowledge-based jobs to the city in health care, high tech, innovation and even the film industry.
Nicholas Boughen has been champing at the gigabit since he opened his CG Masters School of 3D Animation and VFX in the Shops at Westminster Station four years ago. Creating digital effects for film, television and games takes a lot of computer power; a single frame of an explosion can take 1,000 gigabytes of data. Moving that amount of data over existing copper cables to massive “rendering farms” where stacks of thousands of powerful computers transform digital ones and zeros into orange balls of flame and roiling smoke is impractical. So Boughen built his own rendering hobby garden of 80 computers in house. Still, rendering a student project can take days.
Having a high-speed connection to the remote rendering farms will “mean our training program becomes more capable,” said Boughen. And that’s attractive to VFX giants like Sony Pictures, Imageworks and Industrial Light & Magic, who he foresees could one day occupy the empty floors of the Anvil Centre’s office tower.
That’s not just fanciful thinking said Alvin Chok, BridgeNet’s Chief Information Officer.
As young workers that drive the technology industries get priced out of the Vancouver housing market, they’re looking to more affordable cities like New West that also offer the big city amenities they value like access to transit and walkability. So are their employers.
“They want to stay connected to the world,” said Chok. “Their big motivators are rents and affordable real estate compared to Yaletown.”
The City will build and operate BridgeNet as a utility. It will install, maintain and own the network, leasing capacity to private Internet Service Providers that will then provide access to business and residential customers; to date four ISPs have signed on.
The network’s backbone will be completed in two phases; the first will connect Uptown, Downtown and Sapperton and next year’s second phase will extend to the West End and Queensborough. The ISPs will then connect businesses and multi-family residential complexes to the backbone. The ISP’s at Tuesday’s launch event, like UrbanFibre, were advertising Gigabit internet connections for residential customers for $79 a month.
But it’s in the business sector the city hopes BridgeNet will really connect. High speed fibre will be an allure for upcoming developments at Sapperton Green, the Brewery District and Queensborough, as well as existing office space Downtown and Uptown, said Chok.
“We’ll have enough capacity so we can scale up,” said Chok. “We can accommodate future needs.”
Including the demands of a redeveloped and expanded Royal Columbian Hospital which will rely on high speed internet to move vast amounts of data like hi-res X-Rays, MRIs and even remote robotic operations.
“Jobs are being created in technology,” said Harper. “The innovation curve is huge; it’s going straight up.”
For more information about BridgeNet, including an interactive map of where and when it will be available, go to www.bridgenetnw.ca
I was recently commissioned to shoot some product photos for Steel & Oak Brewing Co., to be used on their various social media feeds. They’re a small craft brewery located about 400 meters from our condo. Needless to say, I’m fairly familiar with their products…
With apologies to the Eagles, there’s a new kit in town.
Actually, the Fraser River Fuggitivi road bike group has been rolling up and down the hills of New Westminster and beyond for about five years. But this spring the squadron has achieved a milestone coveted by every collective of roadie riders; they’ve got kit.
That’s cycling speak for fancy custom-designed jerseys and shorts emblazoned with the team’s name as well as the logos of various local sponsors. They’re not just riders anymore; they’re rolling billboards for an elite selection of supportive businesses. They’re also ambassadors for the city (minus the talent competition or commitment to wave from a parade float).
The Fuggitivi was formed by New Westminster roadie and New Zealand expat Guy Wilson-Roberts. He lives along the Quay and he got tired of trudging up the city’s interminable hills and rolling all the way into Vancouver to join a peloton of like-minded weekend athletes. By the time he got there, he was already pooped and of a mind to head back home.
So he put out a call on social media for fellow riders to come to him.
A few did. Those early pelotons were pretty modest; sometimes Wilson-Roberts’ group ride was just him.
But his persistence paid off; the group is growing.
This year there are about about 20 Fuggitivi (it’s the Italian word for fugitive) escaping the responsibility of their everyday lives twice a week for a few hours of freedom on the road; the group does a long ride of about 80-100 km every Sunday morning and a shorter, more intense climbing ride on Tuesday evenings.
There’s plenty of advantages to riding with a collegial group:
1. Camaraderie
In a group, you never ride alone. Unless you’re off the back early on a major ascent like Mt. Seymour. Then you’re left to the bears.
Actually, a good group ride will often splinter into smaller pelotons to accommodate different paces. And confuse the bears by giving them too many options.
In the Tour de France, the last rider in the pelton is known as the Laterne Rouge. On an FRF group ride up Mt. Seymour, he’s called bear kibble.
2. Beer
The FRF’s official hashtag is #moremilesmorebeer. And more refreshing than the Wayans’ brothers’ movie Mo’ Money.
Beer!
3. Mechanical assistance
See how the group pitches in to help a fellow cyclist who’s flatted get back on the road as quickly and cleanly as possible. Face it, best to leave the complicated repairs to the expert wrenches at The Original Bike Shop (shameless sponsor plug #1)
It’s all hands on handlebars when an FRF rider has to repair a flat.
4. Beer
Yes, some FRF rides make pitstops at craft breweries. Heck one of the group’s sponsors is a brewery! It’s in our DNA.
Beer.
5. Aerodynamics
Riding into a cool headwind, it’s actually an advantage to be off the back. Because that’s where you’ll be able to take advantage of the rest of the group slicing a path for you through the breeze. You can conserve about 30 per cent of your energy that way, giving you more endurance to bend your elbows for no. 6. Some group’s call such opportunists a “wheel suck;” in the FRF, that’s just smart riding.
This is how to stay out of the wind and conserve energy on a group ride.
6. Beer
Really, it’s just a four-letter word for carbo-loading.
Beer!
7. Sightseeing
Every week a new captain is responsible for the ride’s route. That means discovering new ways to reach familiar destinations. And sometimes subjecting your lithe road bike to knee-rattling gravel. That’s called channeling your inner Flandrian.
Channeling our inner Paris-Roubaix on a stretch of gravel in Richmond.
8. Um, beer
A traditional post-ride beverage favoured by cyclists is a radler. It’s a refreshing mix of beer and fizzy lemonade. It originated in Bavaria, where the drink was called a radlermass, which means “cyclist mass.” Lore has it an innkeeper just outside Munich was running low on beer during a cycling party, so he extended his dwindling kegs by mixing in lemon soda. BTW, Steel & Oak mixes a killer radler (shameless sponsor plug #2).
Radler!
9. Food
Cycling burns calories. We know this because our Garmin computers tell us so. Ride 100 km with your buddies and eat whatever you want the rest of the day. Especially if you crave delicious tacos at El Santo (shameless sponsor plug #3).
The lunch break or snack stop is a key highlight of the group ride.
10. Yup, beer
According to Bicycling Magazine, beer is an excellent natural source of folic acid, which helps reduce the chances of developing a cramp as you ride. If you stay cramp free, you’re less likely to try to ride through it and risk injury because your suffering body wasn’t up to the challenge. Unfortunately that means you won’t need to be taking advantage of the excellent rehab care at Trailside Physio anytime soon (shameless sponsor plug #4).
Beer!
11. Cool swag
Cyclists were wearing cycling caps long before it was cool to wear cycling caps. FRF’s cycling caps are amongst the coolest around. They’re even made by one of the group’s own members, Richard Lee of Red Dots Cycling (shameless sponsor plug #5). Richard also designed the FRF’s stylish new kit.
Oh yeah, you’ll also likely appear in cool photos like this at some point.
12. Navigation
When you ride with the FRF, you never get lost. Especially in Delta, the Bermuda Triangle of Cycling. Nobody gets lost in Delta. Ever.
To cyclists, Delta is the Bermuda Triangle that swallows whole groups whole and never releases them.
13. Beer
You’ve read this far; you’ve earned a beer. Then, oil the chain on your road bike, join the FRF and enjoy more beer.
And….beer!
To learn more about the Fraser River Fuggitivi, check their website or follow their Twitter feed @frfuggitivi. Cap’s The Original Bike Shop also conducts group rides on various days.
MARIO BARTEL 