VANCOUVER’S HASTINGS & MAIN
These photos were taken around the Hastings and Main area of Vancouver, a few blocks that is known for some of the city’s most visible and complicated problems. Heavy drug use, homelessness, mental health struggles, and everyday life all goes on within feet of each other. Sometimes literally on the same sidewalk.
I wasn’t there with a point to prove. This was more of a walk with a camera, documenting what’s happening in plain sight. Some moments felt tense and others strangely calm.
Most of these images were shot on an iPhone 17 Pro. A couple were taken with a dedicated camera, but the phone felt appropriate. Quick and unobtrusive. It allowed me to work without turning the act of photographing into a production or a spectacle. Just observation.
This isn’t meant to romanticize the area or sensationalize it. There’s nothing glamorous about what’s happening here, and there are no easy answers. It’s simply a photos of a place that carries a lot of weight - socially, politically, and emotionally, and a reminder of how close these realities are to everyday life.
