Artists Lens 2021:
Street Photography
Online Photography Exhibition
Street Photography expresses instant, unexpected encounters, and the unpredictability of interactions between ourselves and public life. In this exhibition, artists explore broad themes in their relationship to public spaces, such as nostalgia, isolation, idealism, public protest, science fiction, voyeurism, literature and geometry.
This year, ASA Gallery is hosting Artists Lens 2021: Street Photography as both an online and physical show to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions. This online exhibition will run from January 20 – March 20, 2021. We will open our gallery for the physical exhibition when it is safe to do so.
Artists Lens 2021: Street Photography will be participating in this year’s EXPOSURE Photo Festival.
How to View Works:
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"The Pope's Snow Shovels" by Brent Laycock RCA ASA
During our exhibition trip to Krakow, Poland, we took a walking tour past the former residence of Bishop Karol Josef Wojtyla who later became Pope Saint John Paul II. Our walk took us past a little alcove with this collection of colourful snow shovels. I was attracted to the humble scene that allowed me to imagine the Pope-to-be out shovelling snow with his brothers. It was a charming and memorable moment.
"Constructing Imagination, quadriptych" by Alexis Marie Chute
I photographed construction and renovation sites downtown Edmonton and layered those images with photographs of my wood sculptures. I then created gel transfers of these composite images onto birch panels, connecting the final images to the wood of the physical sculptures and the construction materials themselves. These artworks speak to shape and form, and the abstract ways that I tend to see the world as an artist. As well, they evoke viewers to find beauty in the mundane, that which we might see every day but never truly notice or appreciate. The stage of production, not only the final building, holds ingenuity, inventiveness, and inspiration. These artworks aim to recontextualize the often annoyance of construction into a new way of looking at our urban landscapes.
"Calgary City Hall in Canada 1" by Han Sungpil
My Façade Project is to explored fluidity between the real and the ideal. My photographs particularly portray the deceptively realistic images, depicted on covering of building exteriors or the virtual world as embodied in architectural façades. The disorder of restoration sites, where efforts are being made to revamp historic buildings and preserve their cultural legacies, are typically concealed by screens depicting images of the fully restored buildings. By transposing actualities with images of the future (the fully restored buildings) or reproductions of a recognizable masterpiece, the screen, a classic form of media, induces a temporary amnesia that blanks out the present. By replacing actual façades with photographs of a virtual world, I replicate a reality that is itself a replica. These photography works are completed in Europe, Asia and North America, including the scenes of renovation, City Hall in Calgary in 2020.
"Prairie Drive" by David Youn
This is a composite image of pictures I took while driving home from Kananskis. I wanted to capture moments I had experienced on the drive to and from the area over the years. I then assembled them into 3 separate composites and ultimately into this single mural.
"Together" by Angela Boehm
Taken in the streets of London, summer 2018. Looking at photographs taken before the pandemic is highly nostalgic. The things we took for granted, that brought so much joy. A walk in the park then was so carefree. Looking now through the lens of 2020 we can see a child protecting themselves, hiding from a threat that can't be seen. How circumstances can change perspective.
"Covid Blue" by Cary Schatz
This photo Covid Blue was taken during the summer of 2020 in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic. Shot in Edmonton, it captures a portrait of a lone individual dealing with the times. His facial expression showing elements of frustration and containment as he lightly taps his foot. Blue represents the colour of him and his mask as it is juxtaposed against a muted background. It is also the time we are in and the longing to escape. There is a solitary effect as there is no one else in this once busy hub. It’s easy to put ourselves in his place.
"Gazing the Anthropocene 03" by Dr. Jean-René Leblanc
Gazing the Anthropocene is an extension of my ongoing photographic research using digital infrared photography to investigate spaces and places with strong historical and cultural significance. The helmet actually gives a very emotive alien feel, as if we’re strangers to our own world transforming our ubiquitous understanding of landscapes.This found object has strong cultural connotation related to science fiction and technology it is contextualized in these artworks as a metaphor of humankind’s blind faith in technology and the ways it has guided its devastating global economic practices.
"The Break" by Cary Schatz
An older and never published photo from 2018 taken in the Marais area of Paris. There is a mid-morning break taking place for three chefs outside their restaurant. Although they appear to be exhausted, they are vibrant in their expressions. All except the middle chef who comically appears to be caught between them. His expressionless stare passes through the lens of the camera as if not seeing it but visiting somewhere else. The surrounding rustic background tells the story of them slipping into the back of the restaurant where they can escape before the lunch crowd appears.
"Hopscotch (Rayuela)" by Arturo Pianzola
Hopscotch (Spanish: Rayuela) is a novel written by the renowned Argentinian writer Julio Cortazar. The novel consists of 155 short chapters that can be read in two possible ways; progressively, or by jumping (hopscotching) through the chapters according to a given set of instructions.
Adjacent to the Argentinian National Library in Buenos Aires is Plaza Cortazar. At its entrance, etched in concrete, is the hopscotch diagram that is depicted in the photograph. The diagram is a replica of the cover of the first Spanish edition (1963) of Rayuela. I patiently waited for a photogenic foot to complete the scene.
"Loop of Attention" by Erik Cheung
Behind the cracked windshield covered with water droplets, from a car, through the window of a garage, looking out at those rows of trees and the pedestrian, in a snowing end of April.
Compositionally, two rectangles trapped a dark space that draw our eyes towards the lighted scenery outside. After examining the snowing scene, the crack across pulls our attention back into the car. It is a loop of attention.
I was waiting at the hospital for specimens to be delivered back to the lab. Realizing this probable composition, I took the shot.
Being in the dark stillness, looking at life ahead tells an angle from the patients’ perspective in a hospital setting.
What is the chance of these objects all converged at this point to capture a peaceful distance!
"Out of the Mouths of Babes" by Emma Mullen
June 3, 2020 Calgary, AB Black Lives Matter. I snapped this photo upon arriving at the BLM protest that started outside of Julio's and ended at City Hall. The crowd was passionate. There were thousands of us packed into the street, every person trying to work their way in closer whilst chanting "No violence, no peace, no racist police" over and over again. The cops were standing on the outskirts of the group, hands on their holsters, ready to jump into action at a moments notice. Three of them were standing about 10 feet from me when I heard a voice getting louder behind me. I turned and was met by the stare of this young boy. His head went only to his mothers shoulder and he should have been swept away by the crowd. Instead, his small presence was overwhelming. I watched as he stared down the cops several feet from us and screamed his injustice at them. They stared back and were entirely unfazed. I received permission from both the boy and his mother to take this photo.
"Riveting" by Cole Atkinson
In this photo I attempt to bring light to something commonly ignored, the stereotypical electrical box. Upon closer inspection one can see the intricacy of making it. The wear and tear of day to day existence shows up in the form of rust but also in the form of the repetition of the rivets holding it in place. This conveys how the repetition in day to day life can be seen as wear and tear but also a solid repetition of a pattern can solidify one’s life. Repetition can be the key to maintaining balance and connecting with one’s true self.
"Three Boys" by Arturo Pianzola
The inner narrow secluded streets and alleys of the Kabukicho-Shinjuko area of Tokyo wake up when the sun goes down. A fair amount of drinking, illegal gambling and other shady activities take place here. It is also the home of humble families. I went to the area at dusk and I unexpectedly encountered this scene as I turned a corner. I immediately focused on the boy looking at me and took the shot. I was fortunate because by the time I advanced the film on my medium format camera to take a second shot, the kids were gone.
"Characters of Memorial Park_02" by Twinkle Banerjee
As the day progressed, my mother usually narrated the interesting stories unfolding in the park in front of our apartment. This lead to me picking up her binoculars and deciding to record these stories, each one separated, magnified, and told with the same dignity as the other. Some mundane, some happy and some sad, these stories started reflecting the environment and the changes that were taking place, and as a viewer gave me access to all of it from my little balcony.
"Every Second Day If Not Every Day" by Gerry Dotto
I work in a variety of mediums, exploring themes of communication and the relation of humans to their urban environment. A city under construction serves as a constant challenge to us human beings. We’re affected by the barriers, scaffolding, pylons and tarps, forcing changes in traffic and disruptions to our daily lives. But the physical change to the city’s buildings and roads also includes a visual transformation, and I’m intuitively drawn to these environments. Texture, pattern and composition become the dominant characteristics in my photos of construction sites. They explore very different ways of seeing the quotidian, drawing our attention to things that we all see but mostly ignore.
"2006 Spiller Road, Calgary, 2011" by George Webber
This photograph is from my ongoing documentation of Calgary’s social landscape. The project might best be summed up in a quote from William Faulkner. “I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that I would never live long enough to exhaust it.”
"Dusk on Acorn Street (Boston)" by Suzan Berwald
Serendipity strikes! You just catch the glow of the dusk light as it hits the brick facade of a nearby building! Your camera is at hand and the shot is taken. This walk in Boston down a quiet historic street results in capturing a quicksilver in time.
"Our Bubble" by Angela Boehm
Taken in the streets of Tokyo spring of 2019. Looking at photographs taken before the pandemic is highly nostalgic. The things we took for granted, that brought so much joy. Dinner with friends with no concern of rain. Looking through the lens of 2020 changes ones interpretation. Today we see a shield of protection from a threat that can't be seen.
"Photobombed" by Kenneth Fung
I was setup to take a picture of the moving LRT with long exposure, a passerby walked in front of the camera. I immediately yelled freeze. My speeding LRT picture was pleasantly being PhotoBombed.
