Unlocking the secrets of our annual Fall Arts Season Preview issue photos

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      As you may have noticed in this week's Fall Arts Preview, the cover of the Georgia Straight and inside shots of up-and-coming dancers, comedians, actors, visual-arts talents, and musicians all took place in and on top of the historic Dominion Building.

      It's a storied location, and an artwork unto itself: located at 207 West Hastings Street, it was the city'f first steel-framed highrise, and supposedly the highest commercial building in the British Empire, when it was completed in 1910.

      It's also been the subject of other artworks—as seen in the recurring painting by local artist TIko Kerr tucked into each photograph. The original is owned by Jacqui Cohen, who happens to own the building. There is a reproduction of the painting inside the first Dominion elevator.

      Here's what photographer Alex Waterhouse-Hayward had to say about his shots in the architectural gem that also happens to rent space to a host of artists and writers.

      "The dancers were photographed by the elevator and on the roof. I placed them over a very large horizontal ventilation shaft.

      "The artists I photographed in the covered building on the roof that houses the three motors that handle the elevators. The two artists are holding little cactii that are the works of our female artist.

      "The comedians I  photographed on the 11th floor. I believe that it is not a real detective agency but a front for some sort of film business. The gun is a toy gun.

      "The musicians I  photographed in the Gold Saucer Studio on the second floor [and also a studio dance subject Natalie Tin Yin Gan uses regularly for her work].

      "The actors I photographed on the second floor stairs, where I have previously photographed Marina Hasselberg with composer John Oliver and many years ago Norm Perry of Periscope Productions."

      All this intimate access to the nooks and crannies of the building were accommodated by Zvonko Markovic, pictured here.

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