Photo exhibit captures vintage Vancouver street culture

The work of one of the most prolific street photographers of the 20th century, Alfonso “Foncie” Pulice, is being showcased in an exhibit called “Foncie’s Fotos” at the Museum of Vancouver until Jan. 2014.

In the age of camera phones, most Canadians have plenty of pictures of themselves and their loved ones.

But between the 1930s and the 1970s, few families owned their own cameras.  In some cases, the only family photos they had were taken by street photographers.

In Vancouver, one of the most prolific was Alfonso “Foncie” Pulice, a local street photography legend whose work is being showcased in an exhibit called “Foncie’s Fotos” at the Museum of Vancouver (MOV).

Pulice is best known for his photos of people walking around downtown Vancouver, especially in the northeast corner of Granville Street at Robson Street.

The photos capture Vancouver’s changing cityscape, fashions, and social customs, as well as the demographics of the city.

According to MOV Director of Curation and Collections, Joan Seidle, Pulice took upwards of 15 million photos in his career, some of which were never claimed by those he photographed.

When he retired in 1979, he gifted to the museum more than 10,000 negatives and his camera - a large contraption made of surplus war material, a flash powered by a car battery, with a storage compartment for claim tickets, Seidle said.

The camera, digitized negatives, vignettes, and many more things are on display starting June 6.

Foncie’s Fotos is presented in collaboration with the Knowledge Network which is premiering a feature documentary on Pulice by Melanie Wood on August 5 – B.C. Day.

The exhibit runs until Jan. 5, 2014.