September 2012
| Seven Solutions by Russ Zillman Honourable Mention “It was like three different pictures in one with the port, the garden and then the billboard,” says photographer Russ Zillman. The billboard is one of seven created by Downtown Eastside community members to show the 7 Food Solutions of the DTES Kitchen Table Project, a community-led food action plan co-founded by the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House and Potluck Café Society. The planters behind the chain link fence belong to SOLEfood’s urban farm. Established in 2009 by United We Can, SOLEfood is a social enterprise that trains and employs Downtown Eastside residents to build, plant, maintain and harvest locally grown food. Russ Zillman is a Hope in Shadows vendor. As first time entrants in 2005, he and his girlfriend Jo Mangatal tied for first place. Russ says that he’s been taking photographs ever since. While he admits to a little friendly competition with his partner of 18 years, they often work as a team, including dragon boating with the Open Door Society. Training weekly for more than three months paid off as the team took silver and bronze medals in the 2011 Vancouver Dragon Boat Festival. Russ is featured in the award-winning book Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. From the Hope in Shadows collection |
