Disappearing Burnaby: new collection now available
The City of Burnaby Archives is pleased to share the new Disappearing Burnaby collection. The collection includes 33 photographs that were taken and selected by Nakita Cheung, an amateur photographer from Burnaby. According to her site, Cheung’s Disappearing Burnaby photography project is "a photo journal of Burnaby’s disappearing low-rise apartments, bungalows, and buildings." Cheung's photographs depict buildings and street scenes that she finds aesthetically and historically interesting, before they are lost to time and/or development in the changing urban landscape of Burnaby. The photographs are often taken at night and in the rain, and focus on neighbourhoods in south Burnaby.
Cheung selected these photographs for donation to the City of Burnaby Archives because they reflect Burnaby in a time of transition, as the city experiences the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid development, and new construction. All the buildings in this collection were photographed within the last two years, but some may no longer be standing even by next year. By donating to the Archives, Cheung hopes that people in Burnaby will be able to better access to the photographs and remember or learn about Burnaby's changes and history.
Explore the entire Disappearing Burnaby collection on Heritage Burnaby and visit Cheung's site to learn more about her project and for additional photographs and posts. Photograph descriptions also include the link to each photograph's associated blog post, which provide Cheung's research and commentary.
Please contact us for any questions about access and reproduction.
Pictured above: House with Christmas lights, 2021. Nakita Cheung. Photo ID 634-002.