Robert
Michael Kwong ~ © 2025
I was born in Vancouver on November 15, 1949. My Mother Fern and Father Sam owned a general store (Parks & Co.) in Lillooet B.C., a close 200 m. from Mile 0 of the Cariboo Road. Fern grew up in Strathcona, Vancouver and Sam, in Revelstoke. They had 4 kids, 3 of whom were raised there, Robert, Wendy, Barry and Gordon born in Vancouver. We were friends with the town magistrate Ed (Syd) Angman who had 3 boys, and the local government agent Ed (Cora) Offin who had 1 girl and 3 boys. Ironically the Angmans attended the Anglican church across from Mile 0, and the Offins attended the United Church, 2 blocks east on Main St. Because my dad was one of the town stalwarts I stayed with both families frequently at the Angmans who had a house overlooking the new swimming pool 50 m. away. Conversely I used to sleep in the grass under the willow tree at the Offins with the youngest boy Gerry. They had a large house next to the offices of the government agency. I attended grade 1 in a 1 room wood burning schoolhouse on 8th St. with Ms. Issac teaching. The school is now considered historic and used as a book depository. Being the oldest my Dad who loved fishing, I went with him at 5 or 6 years on his frequent trips to interior rivers and lakes. I helped him unload the car top boat from the car. Unlike my siblings I was not into fishing later on in life (those years of driving dirt forest service roads).
In 1957 we moved to Vancouver and I attended grade 2 at Lord Nelson school on Kitchener St. while my Dad and Mom looked for a home on the North Shore. We lived at 1749 Grant St. a half block east of Commercial Drive, with Dad’s sister, Clara Lim, OC who was nursing supervisor at the Centennial Pavilion, Vancouver General Hospital. Her daughter Diana (rip) was my oldest cousin on my Dad’s side. Her husband Kenny had died while on a fishing trip in B.C. In those days an eight year old could wander down to the heart of the Drive, no problem.
My parents found a house after searching for one on the North Shore of Vancouver. They looked at West Vancouver (the Exclusion Act was repealed) and settled in 1959 in North Vancouver at 4379 Highland Blvd. I attended
Canyon Heights school a short 3 blocks away, my grade 3 teacher was Mrs. Read. One day it was pouring rain and my Dad picked me up and said, “Who’s that boy, does he need a ride?”. He lived 100 m. away from our house. That was my first intro to Peter and we have been life long friends ever since. Peter was a big kid and even though I was good at Little League, he held the record for home runs. Eddie was a guy who lived 3 houses over on Highland and was quite advanced socially for his age. He got a job selling women’s lingerie through his next door neighbor, Vic. One time when we went skiing, Eddie went into a large dip and broke his teeth with his knee. That was enough for Eddie.
In 1960 because Grouse Mountain was close by and I had already been on skis the family took up skiing on the local hill. It was there I skied with Don F., Al B. and Peter S. On weekends, Mom drove us to the end of Skyline Dr. and we hopped onto the original timber double chair which took us half way up the mountain to a newer double chair on “The Cut”.
The lower chair had a little roof overhead to protect the occupants from grease which dripped down from the sheaves on the towers. Going around the bull wheel at the top was a lesson in humiliation. Great skiing fun on Grouse and Don, Al and I joined the Tyee Ski Runners at 15 years old. I was not a good racer and preferred general skiing with swoops and jumps, with Don being a great racer and winning his fair share. He was an American who moved to North Vancouver with his Dad, Mom and 2 younger sisters Carol and Paulette. Don Sr. and Marilyn were gracious social people. Don Sr. was a ski instructor for the 10th Mountain Army Division, USA.
In 1961 a new high school, Handsworth Secondary School opened and I attended grade 7 there in 1962. Of the Mods and Rockers I gravitated towards the Rockers and loud rock music. I didn’t have much trouble assimilating into the crowd except for a big guy, Jim who repeated grade 12 and used to chase me around jokingly, shoving me into lockers and such. I could have wiped his clock but went along with his antics. He had a little brother who was blind/deaf and used to take him on his step through Honda 50 cc so I cut him some slack.
I bought my first good camera (Minolta) in 1966 along with others of our group purchasing Pentax, Konica and Nikons. It was then that I started to understand how photography worked to capture a fleeting moment clearly with film speed, speed, focus and aperture in various scenes from snow to forest. It was beautiful how the “Decisive Moment” went down.
Those years were exciting and I didn’t have any problems with discrimination as I hooked up with all the groups/gangs. Members of the jock crowd and members of the rock crowd, they were all the same for me. After trying a few jobs obtained through friends I managed to swing a job as a 21 year old Draughtsman 1 at the District of North Vancouver hall on Queens Ave. My superior was Des Smith and was a great guy. I had a great window desk and table looking straight up to the Grouse Mountain Cut. No doubt my credentials of graduating from Handsworth helped as the General Manager, Murray Knowles’ daughter Robin (Scotties Curling Champion), was the President of our Student Council. I’d still be there 40 years later if not for different circumstances.
In 1973 I applied for a position at Associated Engineering a civil engineering company and started work as a technician. I worked on the design of many well used projects such as the Coquihalla Hwy., Cassiar Connector, Kensington Overpass, etc. There I met Rich, John, Dave and others. We had a great office environment and had a fun after hours time with our hockey team playing the other offices located in Edmonton and Calgary in Banff one year. Rich was a brilliant hard working Engineer and a fun guy. He started InterCad Engineering with a partner Keith in 1987 and were the prime engineering consultants for Wesbuild, Burke Mtn., Coquitlam; British Properties, West Vancouver; River District, Vancouver. I worked with Rich and John over 12+ years and when Rich went over across the street to start InterCad in 1987, briefly for him. We still see them regularly.
In 1987 I began photographing the Vancouver Ski Show at BC Place for Valerie Lang who managed things for the Vancouver Ski Foundation. This was a big deal for me going around to all the booths and events on the 3 day weekend. One memorable time was shooting Garvin Cross speed skiing down the lower bowl of BC Place. There I met Don Andrews, DJ for the “Drive at Five”, CFMI. He was a protégé of the Program Director, Don Shafer, who went on to become PD of Q107, Toronto. Andrews was forming a Promo Ski Team and I was the guy because I skied, photographed, and had Whistler connections with my Mom having bought a condo at Whistler. Free skiing, uniforms, gear and beer; I’m in. I had met my wife Clare at a Halloween party in 1987 at Arbutus Centre and was surprised when her birthday was the same as mine only 12 years apart. Also surprised when we lived only 3 blocks from each other in North Vancouver. We got married on July 23, 1989. Talk about coincidental meetings.
She got onto the ski team in 1988 with a couple of others.
Don had a tiger by the tail. He had sponsors and did a boating / fishing report from a new 33 foot Grew with twin V8’s with all the gas supplied by Shell Oil. He used to boat to Vancouver Island no sweat. What fun Clare and I had with Don and Sharon aboard the Silver Bullet cruising around the perimeter of the Symphony of Fire barge on English Bay, keeping the public away. Don moved from CFMI to KVOS TV and started a golf show. We both went with him to a new promo KVOS Ski Team of our close friends. He started fitness companies called Body & Soul and Westside Gym with his wife Sharon. One shoot I remember was shooting hot nude yoga with all their trainers! I did all their marketing photos and Sharon had a regular fitness spot on BCTV.
The ski show volunteers were all friends and some of them vollied for the Molson Indy later on. I knew Dave Lambert from Grouse Mountain skiing days. He worked with Al Raine setting safety for the World Cup Downhill at Whistler 1989, so it was natural for him to oversee the Indy race as Director of Operations. I started photographing the race around 1992 and at the peak had 5 shooters working for us. Every year for 10 years I’d have a helicopter waiting to take me up to shoot the line in order to massage the line from year to year. You could see very clearly where tire marks came very close or hit the barriers.
Clare came up to help me with various cameras and load film. We made the transition to digital around 1996. The whole town buzzed on Labour Day weekend and that’s what made Vancouver a “Fun City” … unlike now.
In 1987 Mac Parry editor of Vancouver Magazine hired me to photograph the Social Column with Valerie Gibson called “Dear Barbie”, a semi fictitious letter to her Aunt in England. We were treated quite well as many people liked having their photo in the magazine. The party season from September to December was very busy and I met Queen Elizabeth in 1987 at an off the record press reception with Jack Webster standing behind me and Valerie in front along with 10 or so other journalists. Some other figures I met were Eric Clapton, Richard Branson, Rudolf Nureyev, Celine Dion, Arnold S., Sly S. and local luminaries. Was there I met Alex WH-Hayward and Doug Coupland who was then a boy multi-creative artist. Exciting times as one commission led to others. Vancouver Art Gallery, Concord Pacific, YMCA, City of Vancouver, Planet Hollywood, VTV and many Developers cause that’s where the money was.
In 1993 our son Daniel was born and in 1997 I really picked up the skiing when Daniel was 4 or so. I have to say that ski racing and university played a large part in obtaining a position with Arcteryx. He has 50+ Extreme athletes to take care of in his job as Manager of Global Athletes and travels the world repping the brand. In the mid 2000’s I spent 130+ days on skis out west partly being a racer chaser, and partly photographing skiing. Around 2003 Bruce Goldsmid, CEO of BC Alpine called and asked me to shoot event and race photos for the Whistler Cup Kinder races, a 3 day event in early April. I worked for the sponsor, Richard Prokopanko of Rio Tinto. I shot the heavy cast aluminum sculpture which you see in the Roundhouse on Whistler. I did this for a number of years when Daniel was racing up until FIS level.
My fondest memories were of motorcycles, specifically Harley Davidson. I had a taste of bikes in the mid 1970’s on one of my brothers bikes a ’73 Norton Commando. Barry had numerous previous bikes in high school from a BSA to a Suzuki. I don’t know why he didn’t get yelled at for riding a motorcycle but I sure did. In 1973 we both bought 250 cc Honda Elsinores to try our hands at Moto Cross and raced them from Puyallup, WA to Kamloops. It was not the sport to do unless you were connected with mechanics and dealers as it was costly. In 1980 while working for Associated Engineers, helping design the highway for Kananaskis Country I walked into Calgary HD and saw a show room HD Roadster and rode it out. The bike was a 1000 cc Sportster dressed up like a
Low Rider. I had a lot of fun on that bike until skiing took over around 1989. I put it away under our deck until I decided to sell it in 2014. We rented Harleys in Las Vegas, 2001 and Maui a few times until Eaglerider HD rental company moved into Vancouver and I connected with Steven Carrier the manager of the franchise. I liked to ride all sorts of hogs such as Electra Glides and Road Glides and stayed away from choppers cause they were meant for show not go. I helped them deliver a couple of bikes to Kamloops and back.
A memorable trip in 2010 was from Santa Monica to Milwaukee, a 10 day sojourn on a Road King with both of us on board and gear. Stopped in Santa Fe then Sturgis along the way. In 2013 I bought a HD Ultra Classic with 13,000 km on the clock and we went to Sturgis for the second time. Clare loved riding and bought an 800 cc Sportster to learn on and stepped up to her present Road King in 2014. I sold my Ultra Classic in 2022 after I left it on a battery tender for 2 years because I couldn’t ride long distances anymore. We both shed a tear.
Other memorable trips I / we have taken were twice to Europe on V Twins, Hwy. 1 on California Pacific Coast, Sturgis, Chicago, New Mexico and numerous other 2000 km trips along Cascadia, Banff / Jasper, etc. In July 2012 I took a solo circumnavigation from Amsterdam through Germany, Czechia, Austria, Switzerland, France and Belgium and I missed my wife, Clare. I picked Clare and Daniel up later at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and we took a car rental to Italy. The last long distance trip we took was in 2019 on a new Indian Chieftain from Lyon, FR to Bellagio, IT and the Italian / French Riviera. A mixture of sun with rain and wind on Mount Blanc caused them to cancel the Val d’isere stage of the Tour de France. The Chieftain ran like a train with all the tech that one would want.
People ask me, “What do you like to photograph?”. My answer is almost always, “Whatever comes my way.”. I think there are more things that I don’t like photographing such as war, demonstrations, poverty however I recognize that in order to bring correctness to the world, someone has to record these subjects. My style? I’ll try to impart some of the commissioners style once I pry the thoughts out of their heads. Basics of form, subject matter, content and a little of my own personal touch constitute my style. I like light hearted photos of people (just think about smiling) rather than stern, almost neutral ones. The thing about architectural photography to me is mostly applying basics to it, then you can go off in different directions with lighting, mood and sets. Buildings appear differently with angles and lighting but capturing them is a lot slower than capturing a fleeting moment on a person (unless you’re a top model). A formula I use sometimes is P = B x P x S x I. Picture = Background x Person x Symbol x Involvement. You don’t have to have all elements in the Picture, but it helps.
On June 4, 2018 I had a stroke which caused vertigo and weakness on my right side. I spent ten days in Lions Gate before I busted out. By August I was back to our bikes and we did a round trip to Jasper via Prince George and McBride. I had a relapse on November 14, 2019. In August 2020 we rode to Radium and Lake Louise on a nice trip. Summer 2021 I continued riding shorter routes in BC. I stopped riding Ol’ Betsy in November and put her on battery tender and finally sold her in 2023.
On March 27, 2020, just before Covid lockdown Daniel signed with Arcteryx. By September 2021 he started taking long trips to the US, Europe, and Asia. Life changes at late or early hour for humans. For me because Commercial Photography was slowly going down and I didn’t wish to pursue drones and renting software that was a good reason to end it. I had to refer clients to other photographers. I couldn’t carry heavy sets and gear because of vertigo, etc. I still like capturing the moment … with an iPhone.
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