vadim_marmer1

I saw this supermarket cart on the corner of McDonald?s restaurant on

the south side of West Broadway, just a little bit east of Granville.

The cart was filled with junk: an old tape recorder, an artificial

flower, a hockey stick, some clothes, and a kitten toy. I raised my

camera ready to snap a shot of the cart, the alley, and the customers

behind the McDonalds? window.

Then, inside the restaurant, this guy with a broken nose started

making signals. The meaning of them was quite clear. Obviously it was

his cart, but I pretended that I could not quite understand him. Then

he came out and told me that the cart was his house. I apologized and

said that I did not know.

He seemed to be in the mood for a talk, so I said that I liked his

kitten, and he told me that it was a gift from his sister. She?s dying

too, he said, dying from AIDS and several cancers. She?s

thirty-something, but he did not know exactly. Everybody here is

dying, he said. Steven over there, he pointed to the alley, has four

cancers and AIDS. That?s five diseases, he explained.

A truck was moving slowly down the alley. I thought that he was in the

way, so gently pushed him to the side. Don?t worry, he said, nobody

here will hurt me. I had no change on me, so I asked if he was hungry

and offered to buy him a meal, but he declined. I just ate, he said.

Everybody here know me and are very kind to me, he explained.

Two girls passed us. So many beautiful ladies here, he said, but I

have no time for them, I?m very busy: must take care of the brothers

in the neighborhood, and then go to Hastings, he explained. You don?t

know how hard this life is, he continued, you have to live it to

understand.

His name is Derek. I kept snapping pictures while he spoke. He did not

mind. I took about twenty shots or so. Later that night I accidentally

destroyed half of the pictures when I opened the back of camera

forgetting to rewind first. Now I keep telling myself that the best

shot was one of them.

mooncruise* | gallery presents

PLASTIC*

An international group show of photography created with toy cameras.

Steve Barry, Levi Wedel, Jesse Louttit, Warren Harold, Rachael Ashe,

Tanya Goehring, Laura Burlton, Clare Yow, Ina Jang, Sean Frith, Noel

Bullock, Eleanor le Gresley, Brent Bennett, Vadim Marmer.

Opening July 14th 7.30pm to 10.30pm

The show run until Aug 31st

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mooncruise* | gallery

235 Cambie St. (Gastown)

Vancouver. BC. V6B 1E5

Canada

604.685.9575

mooncruisegallery@gmail.com

mooncruisegallery.com