For decades, Sun shutterbug Oakes did it all
‘Sports ... features. He could do any of it. He didn’t talk about it, he just did it’
Ken Oakes retired from The Vancouver Sun in 1992. But his photos were so distinctive they remain a staple of the newspaper three decades later.
Whenever we do a story on hippies, we dig out Oakes’ photos of the first Be-In in Stanley Park in 1967. When Dave Barrett died, we ran several Oakes photos of the former NDP premier from the 1970s.
And when Presentation House gallery did a show of Sun and Province photos in 2012, the cover photo for the exhibit was a stunning Oakes shot of the neon signs on Granville Street in the 1960s.
Sadly, health problems forced Oakes to take early retirement. A very funny guy, he was also very private, and rarely had any interaction with his old colleagues.
On May 12, he died at Eagle Ridge Hospital in Coquitlam at the age of 84.
Kenneth William Oakes was born in Winnipeg on April 8, 1936, and spent his childhood moving between Toronto and Vancouver until the family finally settled in the West End.
At some point his mom bought him a camera, and it changed his life.
“That was all he really ever did, take pictures,” said his daughter Erin. “He got hired at The Sun very, very young.”
Former Sun photographer Ralph Bower said Oakes learned the craft from Don Leblanc, who had a studio and a contract to supply photos from the Fraser Valley.
Oakes photos started appearing in The Sun in 1956, but his photos appeared in both the Sun and Province in 1957, which means he was still freelancing. His photos also appeared in the Columbian in New Westminster, but it was The Sun that recognized his talent and hired him.
“I handed him my Speed Graphic (camera),” Bower recounts with a chuckle. “They said, ‘You go back to the darkroom and let Ken Oakes have it. He’s too good.’” Bower knew it was true. “He was good all-round, not just good at one (subject),” said Bower. “Good at sports, good at features. He could do any of it. He didn’t talk about it, he just did it.
“He had an amazing way to set up a feature picture, he knew how to juggle it around. I always remember a shot he did on a golf course of a little old lady hittin’ her shot. The sprinklers were in the background and it looked like masses of water were coming out of her head.”
Oakes had an incredible eye, and worked to get an unusual shot. He was the absolute master of the funny photo — in 1972, The Sun collected them in a book, Would You Believe it?, which sold 10,000 copies.
In 1965 he won a National Newspaper Award for a hilarious photo of a musician in the Kitsilano Boys Band whose head was completely covered by a sousaphone played by his bandmate.
The same year he was assigned to cover the first Rolling Stones concert in Vancouver. His negatives from the show were discovered a couple of years ago and are simply amazing. The Stones look impossibly young and innocent, but the sideways look an attractive young woman gives Mick Jagger backstage hints that they weren’t that innocent.
A full-page ad for his Would You Believe it? book runs down some of his accomplishments — three Canadian Press awards, a United Press International Award and 12 photos that were published in Life magazine. But he never let it go to his head.
“He couldn’t have been more humble about it,” said his daughter.
“I would say ‘Dad, you’re an artist,’ and he would look at me like I was crazy and say, ‘No no no, this is just my job, this is what I do.’ I don’t think he ever believed he was anything special.”
Unfortunately, he got a bad back following a snowmobile accident that occurred while he was on assignment — at times his wife had to drive him around while he laid flat on his back, because it was too painful for him to sit up. He also broke his leg trying to avoid some players while shooting a B.C. Lions game.
Oakes met his wife, Dorsey Moore, at the paper — on Oct. 29, 1956, when he had her pose for a photo with a kitten. In 1957 they were married. The couple had three children, but tragically their son Gary died in childhood.
He is survived by Dorsey and his daughters Erin and Lisa. A celebration of his life will be held after the COVID-19 crisis passes.