Hotel Europe

Each ICON sprouts in my photography. An ICON is approximately two years of process — from concept to completion

I carefully draw out a graphic silhouette by hand. After detailed study I choose which adornments to include — taking particular interest in ones that can be missed by a passerby on the street

Next I extrude elements from the building’s “face”. This period in process feels like an extended ballroom dance. There are twists, turns and dips — I go back and forth, and back again. I aim to leave plenty of space for the typography — which I consider the entry point for a viewer — and still include enough of each ICON’s definitive decorative elements. I’m humbled when viewers recall a personal dialogue or history with an ICON. To allow for this, I’m compelled to ensure familiarity

I select a quote after boulevards of research. I learn from this meditative and often lengthy time in process. Ultimately my choice offers an emergent playfulness between the quote, or the quoted, and what each ICON outwardly presents — rather than be a quote about the ICON itself. Sometimes it complements, sometimes it counters. Sometimes in humour. Sometimes in critique

Each letter in each composition is unique — hand manipulated as a self fashioned typography. For colour I created the blue exclusively for the limited edition — suspended among Arctic, Cerulean, and Sapphire. It speaks to the hue we discover anew — each time the clouds lift — in the high latitude low angle light of Vancouver’s shockingly alluring sky. The three hints of clouds are a fun unifying feature across this series. I use their placement to convey the perceived presence of each ICON relative to a viewer from the streetscape

Originally a rare fire-proof hotel in the era it was built, the Hotel Europe now provides affordable housing in a rapidly gentrifying district