North Shore News photographer Cindy Goodman took a postmodern trip through the looking glass recently, shooting a behind-the-scenes photo gallery of a photo gallery.
The Polygon Gallery, located on a prime piece of North Vancouver waterfront beside Lonsdale Quay, is currently under construction, set to open its doors next fall. The shiny new building – literally shiny, given the planned exterior finish of crumpled and unfolded reflective metal – will be the new home of Presentation House Gallery, the largest non-profit photography gallery in the country.
“I was totally thrilled,” said Goodman about getting a sneak peek at the bare bones of the gallery. “It’s so much fun to get in there and see it midway through. When we finally go to photograph the opening and see it when it’s up and running, it’s going to be spectacular.”
The old Presentation House Gallery, housed in a school house built in 1902, was a hidden gem for photo junkies like Goodman, whose career as a pro shooter started basically the day she left high school. She took a job with the BC Pavilion at Expo 86, releasing a book of photos that same year featuring shots from around Vancouver taken in the year leading up to Expo.
Goodman, a lifelong North Shore resident, is happy to see that the gallery will be hidden no more, moving to a location that will be impossible to miss.
“I think it’s ideal,” she said of the new location and design. “It’s really that modern, modular current architecture that we’re seeing in homes and in buildings. … I think it’ll be fantastic. I think it’ll be a really nice draw for lots of people.”
The old gallery hosted some of the most famous photographers in the world, including iconic figures such as Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, and Weegee.
Gallery staff are being tight-lipped as to what will be included in the first exhibition when the new building opens. Goodman, who has won numerous provincial and national awards shooting for the News, laughed when asked if some of her work could grace the new gallery’s walls.
“I’d have to dig really deep to be one of those people – that would be miraculous,” she said, adding that the only way she might make it in is if she died while shooting. “It would have to be some spectacular death so people would feel sorry for me.”
We beg to differ, but you can judge for yourself by clicking through Goodman’s full photo gallery above. The new Presentation House Gallery is scheduled to open in September, 2017.
