Paul vanPeenen worked as a photojournalist at the Coquitlam NOW from August, 1991 to February, 2012. He was born in the Netherlands on April 10th, 1964 and immigrated to Winnipeg with his family in 1980. The family relocated to Calgary in 1981 and it was there that he began to discover his passion for photography. He enrolled in the Journalism Program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1985. During this time he worked at the Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune as a reporter/photographer. After graduation, he was offered a full-time position as the paper's staff photographer. In 1987, he completed an internship with the Edmonton Journal before taking a job with the Medicine Hat News. After four years he was hired by the Coquitlam NOW and spent the next 21 years as the staff photographer, documenting life in the Tri-Cities area. While working for the NOW, he completed a Masters of Liberal Arts at Simon Fraser University. He retired from the NOW in February, 2012 to pursue his love of travel and photography.