Feb 12 – Mar 08, 2026

Opening Reception: Saturday, Feb. 14th, 2pm – 4pm

In the Main Gallery

JIM BREUKELMAN | Sanson’s Diner Revisited (Photography)

Beyond an instant, very little if anything stays exactly the same. To be able to delve into a still image of a moment, isolated from all of time, is like the magic of peering through a microscope at a tiny fragment of the larger world, seeing things that you never imagined would be there. Jim Breukelman came across and photographed Sanson’s Diner in 1966; a place ordinary from the outside, but with a vibrant atmosphere inside filled with lively, open, and expressive people. Going back over a period of time to talk to, eat with, and photograph the people at Sanson’s Diner, this became Breukelman’s first major project photographing a group of people in order to get to know them and tell a small part of their story. Sanson’s Diner was a gritty sort of place, with all types of people passing through on their way to places beyond Pawtucket. Almost everyone left in a good mood, mostly because of the deft wit and moderating tactics of the diner’s crew, who seemed to work as hard at being mediators as they did cooking and serving meals of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and creamed corn. Sanson’s Diner is now gone without a trace. What happened to all those fine people?

Vancouver based photographer Jim Breukelman’s work explores the poetics of space, altered environments, evidence of cultural attitudes and activities, and real and imagined histories for us in the present and those in the future. Breukelman was born in Trinidad and earned his BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, studying under Harry Callahan, Dieter Roth, and Malcolm Grear. In 1967 he was hired by the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art and Design) to plan and implement a four-year program in Fine Art Photography. From 1967 to 2000, in his various roles as Photography Instructor, Department Head of Photography, and Dean of Media Arts, Jim Breukelman has had a significant influence on the development of artists and photographic art in Vancouver. Since leaving his work as an art educator, he has continued to develop his ideas and themes in photography, exhibiting the resulting work at galleries throughout the Lower Mainland and into the United States.

Check out our YouTube Channel for a video of this exhibition.