Photo essay depicts disappearing Heron Gate

Residents are moving out and the buildings will likely come down, but a local photographer wants to make sure there's a record of the Heron Gate community.

Daniel Effah documented the community in a photo essay called Dispossession, whichwill be shownat the Ottawa Art Gallery on FridayduringanOttawa Architecture Week event.

Effah is usually a portrait photographer, but this time he didn't want to alterscenes or askhis subjects to pose.

"With this one, with it being a photo-journalistic approach, I wanted to keep everything as it was and not make any changes," he said.

"I wanted people to see the atmosphere of how it is when you walk through the neighbourhood or the feeling you get, the emotion you get, walking through the neighbourhood."

Timbercreek, the company that owns the community,announced in May that units in the southeast Ottawa community are beyond repair and needto be demolished.

It told 105 tenants that theyhave until Sept. 30 to leave their homes.

A coalition has organized to fight the eviction, but many families took the company's offer to help with moving expenses and have found new places to live.

Effah said Heron Gate is a unique communityand that itwill disappear with the evictions. He hopes the photos will let people see that community.

"I was hoping to put a human face on the situation that is a burden on a lot of people," he said.

"I just wanted to be the messenger and just put the message out there."