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Scenes from our own backyard

“Top of the Pass” photo exhibition at MY Millennium Place during month of November
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Vivid Visuals The Top of the Pass exhibit features scenes from the Sea to Sky region, much like the book by the same name. Photo by Bonny Makarewicz

As anyone who lives in Whistler can tell you, this little mountain town is about much more than swishing down pristine slopes (though that is a pretty big draw). If you’re unaware of all this region has to offer, you need only flip through the glossy pages of “Top of the Pass,” a book by local author Stephen Vogler and two local photographers, Bonny Makarewicz and Toshi Kawano, which was released last December.

Approaching the one-year anniversary launch date, the author and photographers are hosting a month-long photographic exhibit of “Top of the Pass” at MY Millennium Place.

Vogler just helped Makarewicz hang the 20 selected prints last Friday, where they will remain through November, and possibly the month of December as well.

The exhibition is also just in time for the season to start up again, a time when Vogler says there is a renewed interest in everything Whistler and Sea to Sky.

The “Top of the Pass” project started almost two years ago, but it draws on years of the contributors’ experiences in the area.

“I always sort of joked that it was 30 years of research for the writing,” Vogler said with a laugh, explaining that he’s lived in the area for that long.

When Vogler was given the go-ahead on the book, he decided to approach a handful of local photographers that he believed would be valuable to the project. Kawano and Makarewicz were within that group.

They each submitted portfolios to the publisher, who ultimately decided to use both of the photographers for their strengths and stylistic qualities.

“With Toshi’s pictures, there was a real, striking quality about them, like for example the cover shot of the book and others where they’re really dramatic and really visually eye-catching,” he explained, “And with Bonny’s, I think it was her ability to capture the life or essence of a situation. She puts the viewer into that moment in life, and I think that comes from her years of photojournalism.”

Makarewicz is a freelance photojournalist whose photos appear in a wide range of publications – The Vancouver Sun, The Province, The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, and more. She’s also called Whistler home since 1990, shooting people and places within the Sea to Sky region. Over the past 18 years, she’s amassed quite a collection of visual stories from the far reaches.

“The ‘Top of the Pass’ book, it wasn’t just a pretty picture book, it was more documentary-ish,” she said, adding that she combed her archives to find images to match Vogler’s storyline.

Vogler, Makarewicz and Kawano each spent about one year writing, shooting and choosing photos respectively, with the photos playing an integral role in telling the story of the Sea to Sky region.

“They help tell the story just in a pictorial way, because they had really good coverage of the whole Sea to Sky area, so its kind of like doing a tour, starting down on the Sea to Sky highway by Howe Sound and traveling through, right up to… Joffrey Lake,” Vogler explained.

Vogler points out that Bonny’s extensive photo archives were invaluable to the editorial aspect of the book, matching images with the history of the region.

“While some of the pictures go back a little ways, what was exciting about the project, too, is that it is very much up to this moment. There were a lot of images that were right up to now, even editorial type stuff, like the highway being worked on.”

It wasn’t exactly easy to select a few photos from the book to exhibit, and Vogler left that job strictly up to the experts – Makarewicz and Kawano.

The photographers opted to use a blend of shots from the book with other images that fit with the theme, but that would still have commercial appeal.

“The reason for that is it’s a documentary-type book,” Makarewicz explained, “and it goes with the story, but whether somebody wants to put it on their wall or stare at it for years is different.”

Vogler said he often receives positive feedback from people on the range of information and material contained within the text and imagery.

“They like it because it really is a good representation of this place. It sort of captures the different elements of life here,” he said, adding that skiing is not the central focus.

Since the launch party last year, the book has been very well received, both locally and further abroad.

“At the launch party, it was nice to see the excitement of the locals; well over 100 people came out.”

Vogler set up shop at the Whistler Farmers Market all summer, selling copies of “Top of the Pass” to local shoppers and tourists visiting from Argentina, Mexico, Italy and further abroad.

“That’s where I got those comments, like, ‘it really captures this place,’” he said.

Delegates for the Norwegian Olympic teams have already picked up copies of the book, and Vogler said they’re popular gifts for realtors and ski instructors to give to clients.

And with the Olympics just around the bend, and interest in the area at an all-time high, it certainly was an optimal time to release a book that explores the region in an in-depth, comprehensive way.