City Government

Construction Sequence

Do you know how buildings were constructed in the late 1880s when Edmonton was established? Think how you would do it without the internal combustion engine for excavators and backhoes, or cranes to lift beams and barrels of concrete. There are pictures in archives but they are rare.

Most people do not document how they do their jobs, the tools they use, or even how they create things. Everyday tasks are taken for granted or ignored. Specialized skills are taught individually from a mentor to a student or apprentice. Now in the age of YouTube and other training videos we can capture those training skills which might have been lost in earlier generations. The photographer who captured construction sites in the 1880s was really thinking ahead.

Chris Bruun, our featured photographer, looks through his camera lens at things in our city which most people overlook. This excerpt from a sequence of photographs shows the demolition of the Molson Brewery site (104th Avenue and 121st Street) in 2012-2013. Even if the action is slow, the eye of the camera can help us see incremental changes that occur over time and create a sense of movement.