A Room in the City

''A Room in the City'' is a self-revelatory journey into a world of darkness and light, a place of blatant lies and transcendent truths. Photographer Gabor Gasztonyi presents a Vancouver with deep roots in an otherwise forgotten past, and an East End populated by people seeking shelter, safety, and love in extreme social conditions. ''A Room in the City'' presents Gasztonyi''s five-year project of photogrpahing the residents of the Cobalt, Balmoral, Regent, and Sunrise Hotels in Vancouver''sDowntown Eastside, the poorest postal code in the country. They are represented in private moments, with respect and dignity-in their rooms and on the streets-as they wish to be seen. Gasztonyi''s style continues in the great documentation tradition of Czech photographer Zdenek Tmej and Jousef Koudelka, the photographer of the Roma. " ''A Room in the City'' is a haunting collection of photographs by Gabor Gasztonyi. ... There''s more here than prostitution and crack pipes, although they''re in evidence. Whether confronting the lens or averting their gaze, the subjects expose their vulnerability but also their attachment to another human being or a cosseted pet. In the book''s foreword, addiction expert Gabor Maté notes that for many of these people, mental illness or substance abuse is a response to trauma. Their entire life,'' he adds, has been one of survival against odds.'' We''re left wondering how people have to live this way in Canada." -Uptown Magazine "Gabor Gasztonyi spent five years photographing and talking to the men and women of Vancouver''s Downtown Eastside, and ''A Room in the City'' is the mesmerizing result. The black-and-white images, and Gasztonyi''s diary entries, forcefully and unforgettably capture the desperation-and the unexpected glints of dignity and joy-of lives ravaged by poverty, drugs, mental illness and social dislocation." -The National Post Finalsit , George Ryga Award for Social Awareness In Literature