Photographer
Ralph Bower a
N. Van original

By Jim Kearney
Contributing Writer

DO you have any
world-travelling friends
who’ve been dropping
names on you lately?
Names like New York,
Los Angeles, London,
Paris, Melbourne,
Hong Kong? I’m told
it happens all the time.

Bur if Ralph Bower ever
decides, in his retirement, to
trot such a route around the
globe, here's the refreshing
new slant he'll put on his trip
— Belmont, Santa Anita,
Ascot, Longchamps,
Flemington and Happy
Valley.

Does Bower — yclept
Railbird —- love horse racing?
Hey, does Julia Child love
good cooking? Does
Pavarotti love the opera? Do
Siskel and Ebert love the
movies? Does this represent 2
magnificent grasp of the
abvious?

And who is this guy? This
guy was a crackerjack pho-
tographer at the Vancouver
Sun.

Went to work there, fresh
out of North Van High, as a
copy runner in [955 tor
$36.50 a week. His high
school buddy, Arv Olson,
was hired at the same time.
He went on to become
B.C.’s best known golf
writer.

Bower went into the

photo department and emerged, on his Dec. 31
retirement, as the guy who took more published
photos for the Vancouver daily than any photogra-

pher ever employed there.

He estimates more than 10,006. But this good-
natured, stork-like guy with the weather-wrinkled
face and a brow that has more furrows than a
Saskatchewan wheat field is too modest. Increase
that by 50 percent, his picture-taking contempo-

rarics insist.’

One of them, a Page one shot of a distraught
and deranged father holding his diapered baby over
an apartment house balcony railing, and threaten-

NEWS photo Paul McGrath
LONGTIME Vancouver Sun photographer, and lifelong North Vancouver resident,
Ralph Bower retired from the Vancouver daily on Dec. 31. Bower's photo of a man
holding a baby over a balcony railing won the 1986 National Newspaper Award for
news photography, and the photographer was subsequently awarded a civic sil-
ver medal from North Vancouver City.

ing to drop him, won him the 1986 National
Newspaper Award for spot news photography.

“He was talked out of it, thank God, for a case
of beer,” Ralph remembers.

The city of North Vancouver duly honored him
with a civic silver medal, putting him just a step
behind another North Van High school mate, the
late Harry Jerome. He was awarded gold for his
world record sprinting.

Bower was the first photographer hereabouts to
put a camera into the back of a hockey net. Got a
wonderful shot of Canucks goalie Dunc Wilson,
prone, with snow covering his mask, looking at the

the years.

New they know.

Wednesday, January 22, 1997 — North Shore News — 13

puck well behind him after
Bobby Orr put it there. The
Sun made a full page picture
of it.

If North Van chooses to
honor him again, it should
be for being around for only
a slightly shorter time than
Grouse Mountain. Born 62
vears ago, he has lived his
ennre life in the 600-block of
East Seventh. He’s just nwo
doors away from the house in
which he grew up. And just
three doors down the street
from wheie his sister lives.
The family now owns six lots
there. His next project is to
build a retirement home. But
he won’t be leaving the
neighborhood. He and wife
Joan will be just nvo doors
away from their curres:t
abode. Mavbe that strez-i:
should be re-named Bower
Boulevard.

Speaking of stretches, he has
a second home. Hastings
Park. No one has stormed
the mutuel wickets with
more gusto and -—~ over the
years — more success than
Raiibird. That’s the pseudo-
nym he used when he occa-
sionally did selections for the
late edition of the Sua when
it was an afternoon paper.
For 20 years he found ime
on the side to do work for
the Racing Form. A true
labor of love. He has taken
pictures at the Kentucky
Derby and at tracks from
here to Mexico. He went to
Europe once on a job. To
Seville for a world’s fair.
Hated every moment of it.
No track.

But you want a Bower story
from the track, don’t you?
Try this one on for size.

Just under a year ago, he was
at Bill Good Sr.’s funeral.

Outside, in the church parking lot, he stepped on a
$10 bill. Tucked i¢ in his wallet and promised him-
self he'd bet it for Bill when the racing season start-
ed. He and Good shared a few hundred bets over

He bet the triactor — one way — using the last
three serial numbers of the bill. The three horses
duly crossed the wire in the proper order. Ralph
picked up a cool $2,000. And a few punters, who
were standing next to him down there on the rail,
may still be wondering why he was urging his ho-s-
es home with cries of “C’mon Bill! C’mon Bill!”

FILM REVIEW
Campion’s
Portrait
hits mark

The Portrait of a Lady
(Directed by Jane Campion

— starring Nicole Kidman,
John Malkovich, Barbara
Hershey and Martin Donovan.
Currently showing at
Esplanade 6, N. Vancouver).

Director Jane Campion
returns to the “big screen,
big sound” of Famous
Plavers theatres with a big
money adapration of the
Henry James classic The
Portrait of a Lady.

Her last film The Piano
was an immensely success-
ful gothic romance, and
James’ 1881 novel pro-
vides Campion with narra-
tive material offering simi-
lar thematic possibilities.

Nicole Kidman anchors
the work as Isabel Archer,
a young American inno-
cent making a pre-emptive
strike through a consump-
tive Europe prior to set-
ding down to marriage.
John Malkovich oozes out
the character of Osmond,
a type of role he has
played before. Barbara
Hershey is excellent as the
mysterious family friend
Madame Merle.

Shooting with available
light, Campion’s edgy
mise en scene uses visual
contrasts to intensify the
irony of James’ text — in
one shot the married -
Isabel enters a darkened
hallway from out of the
bright Italian sun as the
door to the outside world
slams shut behind her.

Some scenes begin
with the camera on an
angle and one sequence is
shot like a ]9th-century
home movie. The innova-.
tive Campion gives herself
lots of room ta make the
story her own.

The cast responds to
the expert direction with
some of the best work of
their careers — particular-
ly Kidman who is almost
always on screen in the
demanding lead role.
Recommended. .

— John Goodman.

North Vancouver Civic Hall Gallery:
Peak Performance, performance pho-
tographs from a recent evening of collab-
orative performance art featuring stu-
dents from Sutherland Secondary
School, Keith Lynn Alternative High
School, Waldorf High School and
Capilano College Studio Program. To
Feb. 11. Mon.-Fri., 8:30-4:30.

North Vancouver District Hall:
Heather Cairns of Claythings Pottery.
Presented by the North Vancouver
Community Arts Council. To Feb. 27.
Mon. — Fri., 8:30 a.m. — 4:30 p.m.
North Vancouver Museum and
Archives: Bottoms Up! A Walk in
Burrard Inlet, to March 9. What Gocs On
Below The Surface?, to March 9. Lower
Lonsdale: A Community in Transition, to
March 9. Fitmes. Historic photographs
look ar the roll flames played in’ the
transportation of shingle bolts to the
mills of Burrard Inlet. To April 1.
Upcoming: Burrard Intet: Paste and
Future, a two-part lecture series present-
ed in conjunction with Elder College.
Feb. 9/16, limited enrollment. Museum
hours are Wednesday to Sunday, noon to
5 p.m. Info: 987-5618.

Park Royal North: West Vancouver
Sketch Club Exhibition Feb. 2 to 9 during

regular store hours.

Presentation House Gallery:
Spectacular Vernactlar, Painted back-
grounds and studio portraits from the
George C. Berticevich Collection. To
Feb. 16. Gallery information: 986-1351.
Seymour Art Gallery: A Sense of Place,
anew exhibition by Deep Cove watercol-
orist Ross Munro and prints and acrylics
from N.V. artist Marcus Bowcott’s from

NEWS photo Bred Ledwidge

the Ark Series. To Feb. 2. Final call for
submissions to Discovery 797: The Darker
Side, the gallery’s annual juried exhibi-
tion. Application forms and information
from the gallery. Gallery hours: 12-4
p.m. Tues. to Sun, Into: 924-1378.

Silk Purse Arts Centre: Common
Values, Shared Views, — Catherine
Youngren and Estelle Stevens present a
series of watercolor images, some of

CATHERINE Youngren (left) and
Estelle Stevens present a series of
images in watercolor at the Silk
Purse Arts Centre. Their joint show,
called Common Values, Shared
Views, closes Sunday, Jan. 26.

which come from the shared experience
of a week on Savary Island. To Jan. 26.
Doug Pabl and Jeanne Sugars, acrylic
paintings, watercolors, pen and ink. Jan.
28 to Feb. 9. Tues, to Fri. 11 a.m. to 5
p.m., Sat. and Sun. noon to 5 p.m.
Ferry Building Gallery: Silene Vigil:
Old Growth at Cypress Ridge, Ursula
Medley. Paintings that evoke the majesty
of the forest. To Feb. 2. Artist’s dialogue
at 7 p.m., Jan. 28. Faces, realist portraits
in oils by Bruce Perry. Feb. 4-16. Artist’s
dialogue at 11 a.m., opening reception,
6-8 p.m., Feb. 4. Info: 925-7290.

West Vancouver Memorial Library
Gallery: Dance of the Ink, Helen Kwok,
Tsing Chow, Jennie Cheng, K.C. Chung.
Chinese themes exhibited by four
Chinese artists. To Feb. 2. Info: 925-
7410.

West Vancouver Muscum = and
Archives: West Vancenver Collects!
Exhibition includes Coast Salish baskets,
West Vancouver Girl Guides’ mementos,
and a section on “modern” office tech-
nology (turn of the century to World
War Il). Family Treasures Workshops.
Caring for and preserving textiles and

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