Cord AllmanThe Year Book · Vancouver Work with me
Two people embrace in a crowded room filled with soft blue light.

The Year Book / Chapter One / 01

Journey Through Memories

The rooms grew louder. The archive grew deeper. Something in me fell behind.

54 frames / MEMORY_001 / NOTHING ORDINARY

Follow the chapter into sound

I returned to the noise.

The city was familiar. My eyes were different. I followed music through another open door and asked for a chance to photograph what happened there. There was still so much I could not control. I learned to work with the light that arrived.

A shadowed portrait seen through glass, surrounded by blurred blue and amber night lights.
01

After the noise

Portraits
Two people embrace in a crowded room filled with soft blue light.
02

The room falls away

Life & culture
A singer holds a microphone beneath a warm diagonal spotlight on a dark stage.
03

A voice against the dark

Life & culture
Three people pose together at a busy bar beneath warm lights and hanging decorations.
04

The night gathers us

Life & culture
People wearing glasses laugh together, with a bright red shirt and drifting smoke against a dark background.
05

Laughter through the haze

Life & culture
A photographer crouches with a camera amid a crowd in a dim room with golden window panels.
06

The witness in the crowd

Life & culture
A woman in a light blouse sits outdoors with her hands raised near her face, framed by dark green trees.
07

An afternoon that stays

Portraits
Concertgoers raise hands and phones, with a person wearing glasses singing along in the foreground.
08

All the words by heart

Life & culture
A person in a dark shirt studies a camera indoors, seen in profile against a softly blurred room.
09

A moment before the frame

Editorial

Every room became a world.

Stages gave way to studios, strangers to familiar faces. One invitation led to another. The days began to overlap at the edges. I could hear a room before I entered it, feel the moment before it broke. Confidence arrived quietly, disguised as practice.

A man in a backwards black cap holds the edges of his dark jacket against a grey studio background.
10

The person beneath the pose

Portraits
A woman in light grey clothing and black boots sits beside a metal column in an industrial interior.
11

A quiet place to land

Portraits
A smiling crowd in formal clothing raises hands beneath falling white confetti.
12

When joy fills the frame

Life & culture
A seated studio portrait of a woman in a green outfit against a pale grey backdrop.
13

Room for becoming

Portraits
A silhouetted person carries a golf club and a glass on a staircase beside a tall curtained window.
14

Between one room and another

Editorial
A performer in sunglasses sings into a handheld microphone and points outward under pink and red stage lights.
15

Send it back to the room

Life & culture
Audience members raise their hands and a tambourine toward stage lights in a dark venue.
16

When the chorus finds us

Life & culture
A woman in a rust-coloured outfit sits beside a low table, with pale curtains and houseplants behind her.
17

What the room remembers

Portraits
Two people in blue and white martial arts uniforms stand near a large window and colourful balloons.
18

Before the first move

Life & culture

The light moved faster.

I tried to keep everything. A gesture. A colour. The second before somebody laughed. Nights disappeared into the editing screen while the next morning waited at the door. The archive kept growing. Somewhere inside all that motion, I had stopped noticing my own pace.

A dramatic portrait of a person tilting their head toward warm light, surrounded by brown-toned haze.
19

The silence after

Portraits
A person in black clothing sits on a laundry machine with their head lowered and hands in their hair.
20

Between the turning hours

Portraits
A man with locs, a backwards cap and layered necklaces stands against a blue wall wearing a dark baseball jersey.
21

A portrait in blue

Portraits
A child in a camouflage hat and jacket holds a microphone beneath blue stage lighting.
22

Before the first chorus

Life & culture
Two people in sunglasses gesture beside each other against a pale wall patterned with leafy shadows.
23

A rhythm of their own

Life & culture
A woman in a dark jacket leans beside a large stone column and looks upward, with a city street in the background.
24

The city, between words

Portraits
A performer seen from behind raises a hand toward an audience holding illuminated phones under blue venue lighting.
25

A room full of stars

Life & culture
A smiling musician in a red shirt holds an acoustic guitar beside a microphone against a dark stage background.
26

The smile between songs

Life & culture
Four women pose close together inside a bar lit by a row of round hanging lights.
27

Together in the frame

Portraits

Then someone looked back.

A conversation changed the frame. The camera lowered. A person emerged from the picture I had been trying to make. I began to understand why certain photographs stayed with me: I remembered what it felt like to be there with someone, before I remembered the settings.

A person wearing a black beanie and puffer jacket stands with their head lowered against a nearly black background.
28

Held by the dark

Portraits
A woman in a pale pink outfit and layered pearl necklaces sits among sheer curtains and flowers.
29

Softness has a place here

Portraits
A person in a mustard-coloured shirt holds a camera directly in front of their face outdoors.
30

Looking back at the witness

Portraits
Two people lean over materials in a bright room, seen through sheer curtains, with a seated person in the foreground.
31

The work beyond the frame

Life & culture
A person in a red patterned jacket stands beside a yellow vintage taxi on a city street with steam rising behind.
32

A colour the city kept

Editorial
Three dancers in pale pink skirts and red gloves reach forward from the stage floor while another performer gestures behind them against blue curtains.
33

The body keeps a story

Life & culture
A close crop of layered gold-toned necklaces, green stones and a cross pendant above an open dark garment.
34

What we choose to carry

Details & places
A performer seen from behind faces a closely gathered audience in a small venue with shelves and warm hanging lights.
35

A room that listens

Life & culture
A performer stands with their back to the camera on a stage filled with red light and haze, facing an audience.
36

The red we remember

Life & culture

The echo outlasted the room.

Applause cannot tell you when to stop. I followed its reflection further than I meant to. Eventually the noise thinned, and the quieter questions returned. What was I building? Who was still beside me? Aurelian kept the questions. Criminal Code unplugged the amplifier.

A performer with light-coloured locs and a backwards black cap leans into a microphone as people hold up phones behind.
37

Close enough to hear

Life & culture
A man with short light-coloured hair and a black leather jacket crouches on a wooden chair in a room with illustrated walls.
38

A place in the picture

Portraits
A performer in a cap and sleeveless basketball jersey sings into a microphone with one arm extended toward the audience.
39

The distance a voice can cross

Life & culture
A person with bleached cropped hair and dark sunglasses holds both hands toward the camera in front of green foliage.
40

Hands around the frame

Portraits
A bearded person wearing glasses, a backward black cap and a brown patterned jacket sits partly hidden by an out-of-focus wall.
41

Beyond the wall

Portraits
A person with flying dark hair and raised hands is surrounded by blurred orange light against a purple background.
42

Colour in motion

Portraits
A smiling person in a white T-shirt holds a rope climbing grid against a cloudy blue sky.
43

Room to climb

Portraits
A grey-haired, bearded person wearing a dark suit and striped tie sits beside reflective metal surfaces.
44

Quiet in steel

Portraits
A person in a colourful patterned jacket sits on a wooden floor with a magazine on their lap beside a plant and an exposed glowing bulb.
45

A pause with pages

Portraits

I left a space in the album.

Some memories need air around them. I carried the photographs into a slower season. The work had taught me how to enter a room; the silence began teaching me how to leave one. I was learning to keep a life alongside the record of it.

A silhouetted city skyline with a tall needle-like tower stands across rippling water beneath orange sunset light.
46

The city across the water

Details & places
A person in a sheer black top stands with one arm crossing their waist against a warm, hazy background, looking to the side.
47

In the warm haze

Portraits
A smiling person in a cream sweater and brown trousers holds a camera in one hand and a purple can in the other against a white background.
48

Camera in hand

Portraits
A person dressed in black gestures with both hands in a doorway while several people stand behind and camera equipment fills the foreground.
49

Hands find the words

Portraits
A person in a black top stands on a transit platform beside a yellow edge line and looks sideways in front of a lit wall display.
50

Along the platform

Portraits
A hooded performer holds a microphone and points one finger through red light and haze, with their face in shadow.
51

A voice in red

Portraits
A singer in a white blouse and large colourful earrings holds a microphone near their mouth with their eyes closed against a dark background.
52

Close to the song

Portraits
A narrow city street runs between tall, dark buildings toward a distant clock tower beneath a pale sky.
53

A tower between buildings

Details & places
A person with long brown hair and a dark jacket leans beside vertical wooden slats and tilts their face upward near a grey block wall.
54

Looking toward the light

Portraits

The next story could be yours

Let’s make something
worth keeping.

Portraits, small celebrations, independent ideas and ambitious commissions. Start with what matters to you.

Tell me your story

Photography by Cord Allman

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