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Carin Smolinski – Getting the job done

She grew up wanting to be an actress. And given her bountiful energy - and can-do attitude - it wasn't a bad choice for the young West Coaster.

She grew up wanting to be an actress. And given her bountiful energy - and can-do attitude - it wasn't a bad choice for the young West Coaster. "I attended a special arts and sports program at North Van's Handsworth Secondary," explains Whistler photographer Carin Smolinski. "It was a great program." She laughs. "But given that I'm not working in Hollywood now, I guess you could say it didn't work out for me."

She stops talking. Chuckles. "I kind of burned out on acting," she explains. "Method acting is sooo intense." Another giggle. "So I dropped out of the course and ran away to Europe..."

There's no doubt about it. Smolinski is a force of nature. Lively, passionate and nearly always bubbling with laughter, the mother of two boys admits she has a borderline ADD personality. "I like to make things happen," she admits. "I get easily bored."

Indeed. And that can only mean good things for the Whistler community. You may have heard of Smolinski's latest photography show. Called Living The Dream (now displayed at Creekside's Southside Diner), her show offers a warm-hearted, surprisingly enticing visual look at the myriad ways young people devise to provide shelter for themselves while living at Whistler. "I've learned so much working on this project," she says. "Mostly I've learned just how fanatical people are about living in this place."

But I'm getting sidetracked. We'll come back to the show later. Back to Carin's story.

Her escape to Europe was everything she had hoped for. "It was a huge education for me," she says. After a year on the road, the young traveller came home to Vancouver just long enough to raise more travel dollars and immediately set off for Southeast Asia. "Where I stayed for 13 years, "she says.

And she bursts out laughing yet again. "I was living in Japan working at a bar to raise more travel dollars when I met my future husband," she explains. And that was that.

She contends it was a happy time for her. But by the time Carin had given birth to her first son in 2004 she was certainly ready for more. "I went kind of business crazy at that point," she admits. "In addition to the international preschool I had going, I launched a magazine and started an indoor playground for kids." She smiles. "The playground was a bust," she says. "It was beautiful - a total wonderland - but it never paid for itself."

The magazine, however, took off in a big way. Called Tokyo Families , it's still a going concern today. "You know, there are a lot of bored North American housewives in Japan," she says. "And this magazine was directly targeted at them. It de-mystified Japan for them. Allowed them entry into this very closed society." She pauses. Laughs again. "Besides," she adds. "these bored, over-educated women all wanted to write stories for me and see pictures of them and their kids in the magazine. So content was never a problem."

See what I mean? Smolinski just makes things happen. Consider her move to Whistler.

"I'm a very bad skier," she admits. "But I work really hard at it. And I love it - especially this year. I don't know why. It's crazy. But I'm having more fun on the hill than ever before."

Given her start in skiing, one might be forgiven for thinking she would never take the sport too seriously. "My first ski experience was on a school trip when I was 13," she explains. "And I nearly killed myself. I was supposed to take beginner lessons with all the other non-skiers in my class, but that just didn't seem very cool to me. So I went out with my friends instead. I think I slid down the whole hill on my ass..."

Not an auspicious beginning. But in 2006, Carin, her husband and her three-year-old son decided to travel to Whistler "to do the skiing thing," she says with a grin. And it was a huge success. "My son had an amazing instructor and made a ton of great friends." She stops talking. "It's funny, you know. I suddenly realized that this was the place where I wanted my son to grow up - instead of some concrete jungle in Japan."

So the whole family moved to Whistler. It was a hugely successful move. "This is such a great place for two growing boys," she says. "They throw themselves off everything. They have a lot of fun here."

And what about her Living The Dream project? How did that all come together?

"Well," she says. "I've been doing photography for a long time now. Six years ago, I was really lucky to fall into this group of travellers/photographers. I guess you could call us photo trekkers. We get to travel all over the world with a pro photographer. It's six to 14 days of really intense photo workshops." It's quite the school. For, as she says, the program has taken her around the world - from Morocco to Turkey, Guadalajara to New Orleans.

"When people see me take off on these photo treks," she says, "they often ask me how I can bear leaving my kids behind for so long. But these trips re-energize me. I believe you have to find your own soul. You have to do things that create a spark within you. And for me, photography does that right now."

She certainly works hard at it. "I think sometimes you need personal inspiration," explains Smolinski. "For me it came when I was fortunate enough to get a photo editor from Life Magazine to look at my work." Her advice? "She told me: 'Don't ever show photos that you don't care about.' And that really resonated with me. It's not about pleasing someone else. You have to be totally into the subject you're trying to portray. As the Life Magazine editor said: 'Tell a story. And make sure you tell a story that you care about!' It was that simple."

Those comments continued to play with her psyche. "The Living The Dream theme had been in my head for some years," she explains. "I mean, Whistler is a crazy place - it has everything from extreme wealth to skid living." She grins almost self-consciously. "But frankly, I didn't really want to spend much time in those fancy houses. I knew that world..." The grin turns to laughter. "What I really wanted to do was to meet young people who were challenging convention - you know, what normal people consider a reasonable living situation - in their quest to live the dream at Whistler..."

An interesting project, for sure. And on a subject that remains as contentious today as it was when young Whistler hipsters were moving into forest homes for lack of affordable housing - back in the 1970s!

Fascinating, yes. But how was she going to find subjects for her shoot? "Well," she says, "that was pretty simple. I put up ads all over town offering a six-pack of beer to anyone who wanted to meet with me."

The response to her invitation was almost overwhelming. "I thought I'd find 'poor, oppressed workers,'" she admits. "But just about everyone I interviewed was happy. No matter how tough their situation was, people were incredibly enthused about living here."

The result of all her hard work has been on show at the Southside Diner (and at Gone Bakery) for the last two weeks. And her photos offer a rare glimpse into a lifestyle rarely celebrated anymore. Shot with love and humour - and with a fine eye for the telling detail - her images tell a compelling story about a Whistler "underclass" that virtually defines the spirit of this place. From the young couple who travelled all the way from Ontario to spend the winter in their renovated school bus at Whistler to the two hardcore bikers who had to adapt their one-room abode to fit all their bikes - and themselves...

"My favourite shoot," says Smolinski, "was of Matty the squatter and his mountainside home." She stops talking. Looks at me with huge eyes. "I mean, I had to rappel down the mountain to find his camouflaged cabin."

So has it been worth it? Of course, she says. "This Living The Dream project has really made me come alive. I believe in it so much! Every time I do a new one, I don't know what I'm going to walk into. And that's really exciting. It makes me feel young again.

"It's amazing, you know. The Southside Deli was my first choice as a venue for my show. I thought that would be the best place for my photos. I mean, this is one of the last locals' hangouts. But I really didn't believe that would happen." She laughs. "But the moment I pitched the idea to (Deli owners) Les and Dave they were all over it. They really made it happen..."

So what next? "Well," she says, "I'm not quite done with this project yet." Another ear-to-ear grin. "You see, there are a couple of guys living in snow caves. So far I haven't been able to convince them to show me their home." She pauses. "But I still have hope."

I figure it's just a matter of time...