Comments on: Vancouver, city of contrasts, by Jon Guido Bertelli

By: robert quiet photographer

robert quiet photographer — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:08:50 +0000

It’s always difficult to photograph a place, a city without falling into a trap and submit a series of cliches. But in this work by Guido the combination of portraits, urban landscapes and street scenes work very well and gives a good portraits of a city, with its strengths and weakness. The stories add interest to the images. I like this work, and I have learned something out of it.
robert

By: Steve Rutherford

Steve Rutherford — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:12:06 +0000

What a fabulous show of photos and contrasts in the metropolitan city of Vancouver. Most people would just walk by the homeless and ignore them. I especially liked the personal stories of the people Jon Bertelli encountered and befriended. He is not only an outstanding master of photography, but historian of culture and people. Thank you for having this material published for others to share.

By: Giovanni Vichi

Giovanni Vichi — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:11:07 +0000

Le foto di Jon Bertelli sono veramente belle da vedere: quelle in cui il soggetto è il paesaggio sono stupende nella sua perfetta regolarità geometrica ed essenzialità di forme e colori, le sue foto sono perfettamente comprensibili. Anche i ritratti sono bellissimi, pieni di forza ed espressività … Jon è sempre fonte di ispirazione …

By: Matteo

Matteo — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 07:52:23 +0000

Sempre e comunque complimenti vivissimi per le tue storie, raccontate magistralmente con eccellenti immagini!
Grazie ancora!!!

By: Diane walton

Diane walton — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:12:02 +0000

Jon Bertelli’s eye is so to-the-heart-of-what-matters!

By: Louise

Louise — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:38:22 +0000

Jon. Many times we walk quickly by the homeless or pretend we don’t see them.
They have history and a story. You have taken the time to tell their story both sad and true. Through your eyes and a click of your camera, you support their story.

By: Brissa Arana

Brissa Arana — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:56:10 +0000

El arte, en cualquiera de sus expresiones, es un reflejo de nuestra sociedad vista a través de los ojos del artista. La fotografía de Jon Bertelli en “Vancuver, ciudad de contrastes” nos muestra un lado impotante de la ciudad (si bien menos glamoroso que lo acostumbrado), verdadero e impactante. El periodismo fotográfico de Bertelli es extraordinario. En éste, como en sus anteriores trabajos, las imágenes y los textos demuestran un profundo entendimiento de la estética y una sensibilidad humana y social que son descritos por el artista con singular elegancia y maestría. Felicitaciones señor Bertelli por compartirnos un trabajo de tal calidad!

By: Luigi Sarno

Luigi Sarno — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:29:00 +0000

I have lived in Vancouver for 13 years and I needed someone like Guido Bertelli to make me see what I had had before my very eyes all along. Bauriful piece, touching stories, but the most compelling of all are the photographs themselves.
Well done, Guido!

By: Pam Lucas

Pam Lucas — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 03:52:06 +0000

Jon’s photos are always wonderful. I love his ability to catch the moment!!

By: Diego Bastianutti

Diego Bastianutti — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:04:38 +0000

I’ll give you what I have if I see that you need it, but come dark-time in my addiction, I will take everything you have of value”. Liza
Dear Guido, the first time I saw your photos during your exhibit at the Vancouver Italian Cultural Institute I was impressed by your sensitivity, by your eye’s ability to juxtapose extremes and the unexpected, forcing the viewer to “see” finally what he had always merely looked through. This piece of photo-journalism combines the same technique in both media. Marvelous impact. In my other life, when I worked at a large bank in Wall St., I would walk from the ferryboat station to the Federal Reserve Bank passing through the most rundown area of Manhattan. The contrast of values and life conditions was incredible, two worlds separated by a no-man land of one or two blocks. Yet the words of Liza were so apt there as well. The humanity and generosity could not have been more sharply contrasted in those two worlds.
Guido, your article and photos are not those of a casual observes, an outsider looking in with a telephoto lens. No you have gone inside that world, inside their lives and with great sensitivity have given a voice to each of them.
I happen to know the area quite well, as I was co-director of a program at Co-op Radio on Columbia and Hastings. I bring my granddaughters there to have them see and understand and not judge.
Congratulation for a wonderful and sensitive work.
If you don’t mind, I will post with this a poem I wrote a few months ago precisely on this world.

I’ve seen….

O yea
I’ve seen street lanes and corners
Littered with human dregs
O yea
I’ve seen the ancient pride
Of First Nation
Bent over
Picking butts to stitch
Them whole for trade
O yea
I’ve seen the mindless smile
Of an ageless angel
His hair soaring with songbirds
Skipping and fearlessly flying into
The rush of cars
O yea
I’ve seen the toothless grin
Of a sixty-plus girl On wheels
Trade a mouthful of pleasure
For a spoonful of slop
O yea
I’ve seen a legless shell
Of a man fight a crow
And a mangy teary-eyed cat
Over a scrap of mouldy bread
In the lane
O yea
I’ve seen a numb shivering
Slip of a girl
Desperate
Searching for Nirvana
Looking for a clean track
In a darkened filthy doorway
O yea
I’ve tried to see
Into eyes without sin

Of the child they once were
But I swear
All I could see
All I’ve seen
Is the ravaged face of God
I believe
O yea…

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 03:50:58 +0000

Jon,
Excellent article. If there were such a thing as a required reading list for tourists, this would top that list. Very vivid. Truly puts the city in perspective. It’s also thought provoking in the sense that it reminds the reader that everyone with whom he or she makes contact has a story….a set of events and decisions that have culminated in what we see and perceive.

By: Marco Antonio Saavedra Morales

Marco Antonio Saavedra Morales — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:59:06 +0000

Felicidades Jon verdaderamente eres un gran artista tu trabajo es muy bueno!!!

By: JT. Holoeyen

JT. Holoeyen — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:57:12 +0000

Me, knowing close to zero about Vancouver … Well, I think it really makes no difference looking at these photos to Jon Guido Bertelli. He has really the photographer’s artistic eye for contrasts whatever Metropolis his camera eye captures. High up the posh sterile glass facades as a picture of succesful CitySlick business life. And down below, in the dirt, the others, the drop-outs, the missfits. Crooked houses and human waste. But there is no anger, no accusation, no retribution in those pictures. Despite the tough conditions, I see humor, warmth and compassion. It is just so great and well done.

By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:52:22 +0000

Beautiful, sad, hopeful and riveting. Another wonderful tale from an amazing storyteller.

By: Ingeborg Nicholls

Ingeborg Nicholls — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:14:22 +0000

Jon Guido, you touched my heart with your photos and stories. I am telling others about your Vancouver exhibit.