Western Canada’s Largest Photography Festival Takes Place in Vancouver
Focusing in.
Photo by Alison Boulier
Vancouver plays host to Capture Photography Festival until April 30, with exhibitions and events throughout the city. Launched in 2013, the festival incorporates exhibitions, talks and a partnership with Emily Carr University. The aim of the festival is to connect Vancouver with the world through photography, and the works of an array of lens focused artists. Capture is the largest photography festival in Western Canada.
Caroline Monnet, Echoes of a Near Future, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Blouin Division.
Diane Severin Nguyen, In Her Time (Iris’ Version) (still), 2023–24, single-channel video with sound, 67 mins. Courtesy of the artist.
“Photography continues to prove itself an incredibly powerful means of communication and expression,” says Emmy Lee Wall, executive director and chief curator of the festival. “Our projects exemplify lens-based art’s unique ability to amplify the voices of traditionally underrepresented communities by fostering meaningful dialogue among artists, curators, audiences, organizations, and institutions.”
Numerous installations have been set up around the city for the month of April, including Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia at North Vancouver’s Polygon Gallery. The show details the Russian activists’ group protests against their government and the increasing crackdown of the security state on their actions.
Arielle Bobb-Willis, New Jersey, 2022, Model: Tianna St. Louis , Make-up: Mical Klip, Hair: Errol Karadag, Stylist: Herin Choi. Courtesy of the Artist and Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire.
Untitled (Open Channel), Nabil Azab, Vancouver City Centre Station
The Berenice Abbott Archive at The Image Centre at Waterfront Station
Another highlight is the installation On Time at the Pendulum Gallery. On Time explores the intertwined fates of photography and the passage of time. In doing so, it pushes back against the notion of photography as a crystalized moment, and shows the ways in which the ticking clock can influence photography.
