MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall / Winter 2017

64 MLCM FALL/WINTER 2017 JORGE INFORMED HIS FATHER HE WAS NOW STAYING IN CANADA AND NEEDED MONEY FOR UNIVERSITY TUITION. “BUT ITWAS REALLY FOR A SKI PASS!” HE SAYS. “HE FOUND OUT LATER ANDWAS REALLYMAD.” “In my late teens, I decided to become an exotic dancer photographer. We did the shoot in my Mom’s living room. I decorated it and had my sisters act as assistants with clipboards and everything to look more professional. My Dad and I have the same name, so he got the mail and opened the slides and saw the stripper on my Mom’s couch. We sat there with a Bic lighter and burned them one by one. Dad was strict.” Needless to say, Jorge now prefers digital. Photography played a role in Jorge’s first business venture in Whistler, but this time the models wore clothes. In 1987, he and Sandy Belczyk opened Santini, a t-shirt shop located in the space that is now the Maxx Fish coat check. “It was the skinniest shop in town,” he boasts. “We designed t-shirts and got them printed in Vancouver. Then we found out about airbrush t-shirts and hired local artists like Bruce Rowles, Stu MacKay-Smith, and later, Pete Malaschitz.” As business picked up, Jorge moved t-shirt production to a small space in Function Junction. The move necessitated naming their fledgling company. “Toad Hall” was chosen as an homage to one of Whistler’s most classic, counterculture symbols. Originally a squat/ barn/home located north of town, Toad Hall was infamous for representing the free-spirited culture of Whistler in the 1960s and 70s. Before Whistler grew into a full-blown tourism industry, it was a small town of blue-collar workers, vagabonds and ski bums, many of whom lived without electricity or water—all so they could live a life dedicated to the mountains. “Pete came up with the name. We worshipped Toad Hall and the whole attitude,” Jorge says. “And we wanted to work naked.” Jorge would photograph the Toad Hall t-shirts on local models to promote Santini (one model/ waitress/aspiring actress even went on to star in The Matrix ) and people began to take notice. Soon, Toad Hall was printing shirts and stickers for other local businesses. They entered the computer age in 1992 when tech guru Sean Bondaroff joined as a partner, another Castlegar connection. A few years later, Santini’s landlord asked Jorge to help create a cool new nightclub in the old Garfinkel’s space. Jorge came up with the name and concept for Maxx Fish, then hired local artists to redesign the space. Tattoo artist Dave Petko spearheaded the new look and DJs Vinyl Ritchie and Mat the Alien created a new sound, helping break hip-hop and electronic music into the Whistler nightlife scene. Managing the club with a loosely clenched fist (very loosely clenched), Jorge consistently highlighted local artists and refused to let the spotlight shine on his own efforts, or photography. In 1999, Maxx Fish hosted a Toad Hall art show and essentially kicked off Whistler’s lowbrow arts scene, with nary a landscape painting to be found. These days, Jorge leaves the nightclubbing business to the kids and focuses on running Toad Hall, skiing, paddleboarding and shooting photos as much as possible. Even though his work has graced the walls of WSSF’s State of the Art shows, and his Instagram account has been voted “Top 20 Accounts to Follow in BC” by the Huffington Post, landing him a gig as staff photographer for the Pemberton Music Festival, he is adamant that he is NOT an artist. “We (photographers) are opportunists,” he says. “Light thieves with an artistic eye. Don’t call me an artist, I just shoot what I love, nature or people. Also, I don’t like being told what to do.” Check Jorge’s “light thieving” on Instagram (@jorgetoadhall ) or at flickr.com/photos/ millardog/ Pemberton Valley Music Festival. JORGE ALVAREZ