Hope in Shadows 2007

JUNE 9: 200 single-use cameras handed out at a local art gallery and returned on June 12. The theme was My Friends and Family. This is a shot of Edie Wild - you can see the actual photograph of Edie on the April page of the 2008 calendar alongside her winning image Baby Peanut. Photo Robin Johnson.

late JUNE: Eight local judges choose top 40.

JULY: Interviewing the top 40 winners and the photo subjects about their photos and their lives for both the calendar captions and the exhibition.

JULY 23: Community voting on Main & Hastings Streets. The photos were voted for outside the Carnegie Community Centre from July 23 to 30. Hope in Shadows volunteers Steve Parr and Tebasum Durrani helped supervise the vote which was up by 100% this year. One reason for the increase in voting was attributed to the vote moving from the third floor of the Carnegie Community Centre to the street because of the clousure of the third floor during the civic strike. Photo Paul Ryan.

AUGUST: Calendar production. The calendar set out.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER: Preparing the exhibition. The top 40 images framed and captions written based on the July interviews.

OCTOBER 10: Advanced sales training. A special one-day of sales training for 20 calendar street sellers for the best of last year’s sellers. The two half-day seminars prepared the sellers of the calendar for the first day of sales on October 11.

OCTOBER 11: The Award Ceremony was hosted by CTV actress Gabrielle Miller in Cinema 319 in the morning followed by exhibition opening at the Pendulum Gallery in the evening. The winning image netted the photographer $500, while the next five won $100 prize each. Ten third place photographers received $50 each and the next 26 photographers got $25 each for honourable mention. Everyone received an enlargement of their picture and a certificate. Photo Barry Calhoun.

Steven Mayes one four of the top 40 images, Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda, Didn't, Interwoven, Woman against Wall and The Kiss. The later two images making it into the 2008 calendar. The selection process is anonymous, with numbers printed on the back of the 4,000 photographs. Photo Barry Calhoun.

OCTOBER to DECEMBER: Calendar sales training occured two to three times a week in community centres across Vancouver. Over 180 licensed sellers were trained by December 5 and can be seen on the streets with distinctive bright blue new bags and caps. Photo Marcin Lasinska.