Ryan Ming
  • About
  • Berlin
  • Saxon Summer
  • France
  • Variations On A Theme
  • Finn Slough
  • Anatomy
  • This Is Not Paradise
  • Zukunftsforschung
  • 肉体の門
  • Pale Spectre
  • Talk About The Past
  • Contact
Ryan Ming
For many years, Vancouver has often been referred to by such monikers as Lotusland or The Best Place On Earth, implying this particular city is a sort of paradise. The word paradise is a noun with wide-ranging definitions from a place for the departed souls of the righteous awaiting resurrection, to a place of extreme beauty, to a state of supreme happiness.

Extrinsic to Vancouver's Pacific west coast climate, some of the subjects photographed document vestiges of tropical ersatz consumerism from the 1950s to 1960s; now anachronistic to their surrounding environs.

Illustrating examples include a decorative accent caricaturing a sleeping Mexican from a less politically correct time; a taxidermied alligator head; non-native palm trees used to provide a sense of the exotic; along with a replica Polynesian stone icon for a carwash named Oasis.

Not strictly pertaining to exotic tropical motifs, other photos in the series examine urban fragments and concepts and how they interact with their environment. A few of these work to dispel the notion of paradise.

The majority of photos are devoid of persons or human figuration, yet evoke a wide variety of responses from the viewer: curiosity, irony, tragedy and beauty.