Les Grand Binoculaires
Les Grand Binoculaires is an ongoing documentary photography series made at the Burrard Dry Dock Pier in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
At the end of the pier stand a pair of large public binoculars overlooking Burrard Inlet and the city beyond. Intended simply for visitors to enjoy the view, the binoculars have become, for me, a small stage upon which an endlessly changing series of human interactions takes place.
Over several years, I have returned to photograph the people who gather around them. I am drawn to the curiosity and playfulness the binoculars inspire. People peer through them, point them toward distant objects and toward one another, pose for photographs and selfies, or simply gather around them. Parents lift children to the eyepieces. Friends laugh and photograph one another. Through repeatedly observing this single location, I began to notice certain gestures and behaviours recurring. The people continually change, but many of their reactions do not.
The binoculars themselves remain constant—stationary, patient, looking outward across the harbour. Over time, I have begun to regard them as more than simply an object within the photographs. With their two enormous eyes permanently directed toward the world, they seem almost to observe the people who gather around them. They become silent witnesses to an endless procession of fleeting human moments.
My interest in documentary photography centres on these unguarded moments: the gestures and expressions that occur when people are simply living rather than consciously presenting themselves to a camera. Primarily photographed on analog film, Les Grand Binoculaires is ultimately an exploration of human behaviour, curiosity, and the act of observation itself.
The binoculars remain.
People arrive. They look. They play. And then they leave.
The binoculars continue looking.
And so do I.
