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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Photographer Bob Wilson may have grown up down south but it wasn't until he moved to Yellowknife that he found home.

Longtime Yellowknifer Bob Wilson fell in love with photography at age 17 when he worked for Gerry Reimann at the YK Photo Centre. He later ran the business for 25 years. - Miranda Scotland/NNSL photo

"We moved so much when I was young it was really nice to catch my breath and the place just sort of struck me as home," said Wilson, who came to the city when he was 13.

"I love the place. Other than its obvious shortcomings, it's got a lot of wonderful things."

Wilson's family came to the city in 1970 after his father, Bill Wilson, got a job in the GNWT Department of Finance. Before that, the family lived in a number of places - Winnipeg, London, Ont., Red Deer, Alta., Calgary, Prince Albert, Sask., and Edmonton - moving every two or three years as the elder Wilson set up new branches for Canada Trust.

Wilson, who was the eldest of four kids, said he has fond memories of Yellowknife's once bustling downtown. It was the place to be, he said, adding it was hard to walk down the street and not run into someone familiar.

"The coffee shops were always full with people from all over town: government employees, trappers, fisherman," he said. "Everybody was in this sort of melting pot of the downtown area."

The atmosphere has changed on the sidewalks, as well, Wilson said.

"The street drunks were more integrated. People weren't as afraid of them and didn't have cause to be as afraid of them. For some reason things seem to have gotten a little more harsh," he said.

Back then, a local woman, Margaret Thrasher, was the hero of downtown, he said. People had a lot of respect for her because she encouraged the homeless population to get involved in the community by helping keep the downtown area nice.

"Margaret would organize work gangs and they'd go to the merchants and clean off the sidewalks, that kind of thing," Wilson said. "It's not so much that anymore. Now it's more just very aimless."

For fun, families would gather around the TV on Saturday nights to watch the hockey game. The tapes were always two weeks old and everybody knew by then who had won, but they watched it anyway, Wilson said. Also, the lag helped them make a few bucks off unsuspecting visitors.

"Whenever anybody new came to town, we had a great time betting on the game with them and making some money because they didn't know it was two weeks late," he said.

As a teenager, Wilson worked for Gerry Reimann at the YK Photo Centre, which was located in the W.H. Bromley building. It was there that a 17-year-old Wilson fell in love with photography.

"I just liked being able to make images. It just always seemed to me like a magical thing. And it seemed like a good way to meet girls," he said.

It turned out he had the right idea. While working as a photographer for the government in 1979 he met Judy Paul. The two fell in love, married two years later and had a daughter, Elizabeth, who is now 21 years old. But their love story came to an end about 16 years ago when Judy died.

"She was just delightful. She was really, really always positive and just a fun person to be around," he said, adding he misses her every day.

In 1983, Wilson went back to where his love for photography started and took over the photo centre from Reimann. He ran it for 25 years, closing in 2008. Now he works at Canarctic Graphics.

But, no matter where he is working Wilson said residents will always find him in Yellowknife.

"If I can afford to live here forever I will," he said, adding he loves the beauty of the city.

"It's really special. I wouldn't trade that for anything," he said.

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