By Kathryn Ford

VanSPC was born in January, 2019 after Chris McCann, Stu Weir and Trevor Wide were inspired to pull together various street photographers who’d been posting and following each other on Instagram. We started with an IG chat group, but by the end of 2018 it was clear things should be a bit more formal.  

The group gelled very quickly, and by summer, plans were in the works for a four-day exhibition at The Beaumont Studios at 326 W. 5th Avenue, September 12-15, 2019. More than 20 people showed two photographs each, non-curated. We hung it ourselves on opening day, racing to finish before we launched that evening. 

On opening day, we received a huge, unexpected boost when a story producer at CBC Radio’s On The Coast contacted us around noon for an interview. Legendary local photographer Fred Herzog had died earlier that week, and someone had heard about us and thought it would be an interesting angle. Trevor and Stu did the interview in the afternoon, using the opportunity to promote the exhibition and likely thanks to that our opening gala was packed. 

We were on our way. 

Check out the sights from the day below.