{"id":11658,"date":"2014-04-08T19:31:28","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T02:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wkoopmans.ca\/notebook\/?p=11658"},"modified":"2014-04-08T19:31:28","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T02:31:28","slug":"riverview-hospital-coquitlam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wkoopmans.ca\/notebook\/?p=11658","title":{"rendered":"Riverview Hospital Coquitlam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Riverview\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s sometimes odd how as photographers we seek out places from the past to create images for the present.\u00a0 It’s a common theme to capture something that is on the cusp of disappearing.\u00a0 From the very beginning photographers have tried to stem the tide of time going to great lengths, even recreating\u00a0pseudo realities of times already gone.\u00a0 It’s as if we can’t wait for our images to evoke a sense of nostalgia.\u00a0 If we take pictures of the ‘right now’ it seems too mundane it doesn’t spark the same thing in the viewer.\u00a0 That sense of this is something different because it is no longer here. \u00a0It takes time to make\u00a0many things\u00a0interesting.\u00a0 An early cell phone didn’t seem interesting beyond its technological function at the time say 20 years ago but its sure a ‘huge’ source of amusement now.\u00a0\u00a0 Think of a portrait viewed at the time it was taken.\u00a0It’s generally appreciated as a likeness of the person and not\u00a0necessarily more but fast forward 30 years and that portrait now speaks to the passage of time, to fashion to aging.\u00a0\u00a0 What does all this have to do with pictures I took around the grounds of the now closed Riverview hospital complex?\u00a0 Well I took these pictures now because\u00a0I’m almost certain it won’t be there in the future, I’m hedging my nostalgia bet.\u00a0\u00a0 There is a lot of history here and in the future when we think back to how we handle the issues around mental illness perhaps a few photographs could be illustrative.\u00a0 I would love to take more with greater access but that\u00a0seems unlikely.\u00a0 I do wonder how many photographs were taken around the site over its operating history.\u00a0I suspect that it may be less than imagined do to the stigma that has always surrounded mental health and the societal norm of secrecy.<\/p>\n\n\t\t