Getting a Jump on Our Resolutions

thanks to our publishing schedule, we here at VanMag get to experience the New Year a good month ahead of time—our New Year’s resolutions kicked into effect as of December, when we sent this issue off to the printer.

For us, that means a little self-improvement in a couple of areas. To start, for each issue in 2019, we’re doubling down on the beautiful, tangible nature of print to showcase the work of two artists. The first, Spanish illustrator Jennifer Tapias Derch, will create a collectible series of artworks, one for each of our covers this year. Some of you might remember the gorgeous illustration of Canuck the Crow she designed for our “25 Reasons to Love Vancouver” issue in November 2017, and we’re thrilled to make a year-long commitment to showcasing her work.

And we’re also closing each issue with great photography: we’ve commissioned award-winning photographer Grant Harder to capture this city at different times of day throughout the year. For his first photo, featured on our new back page, “Sometime in Vancouver,” he spent time in his own neighbourhood. He’s lived in Strathcona for nearly a decade and has seen the great swaths of change that have come through Chinatown in that time—along with the spaces that have remained the same, like the storefront barbecue spot he photographed for this issue.

On the November day he took that photograph, early winter sunsets had Harder in darkness by late afternoon—to catch the perfect shot, Harder knows how to wait. “I’ll quite often frame up a photo and wait for things to happen in that frame,” he explains. “I don’t force myself into situations. I’m patient, and I try to wait for those moments. For this one, there’s something about his body positioning, leaning into the window. If he’s in more of a static position, it changes everything. Instead, this feels very much like a moment.”

Many of you share your own Vancouver moments with us over on Instagram (hashtag your posts with #vanmagram, and we’ll share them with the rest of the city, too). It is, after all, one of the most beautiful spots on earth, and we’re happy to be able to shine a spotlight on it, and the artists that celebrate it, too, each month here at Vancouver magazine.