Urban Gaze

An Exhibition by the Vancouver Street Photography Collective

The Gallery George (140 West Hastings Street, Vancouver)

September 20 - October 1, 2023

Exhibition Events

Opening Reception

Friday September 22nd, 6pm - 9pm

Free and open to the public / prints for sale / cash bar

Please register using this Eventbrite link

Street Photography Tour

Sunday October 1st, 3pm - 5pm at The Gallery George

Non-members please register using this Eventbrite link

Exhibition Statement

Walking the streets today is a purposeful, yet distracted act. Whether we are hurried or slow, our focus is partially stolen by our electronic devices. We move unaware of other individuals and happenings, preferring to shield ourselves from further demands on our attention.

The gaze of the street photographer disrupts this dynamic. In street photography, gazing is the act of looking at something steadily, with curiosity and interest. The gaze enables us to notice that which is fleeting. We take the time to weave the details into our understanding of the larger whole.

As street photographers, we can wander and explore without any particular purpose, aside from capturing our impressions. The French photographer Edouard Boubat said, “All you have to do is open your eyes and release the shutter from time to time.”

As a street photography collective, we share this common interest but express it in a variety of ways. Each image in this exhibit represents a personal interpretation of what caught the photographer’s gaze.

The Vancouver Street Photography Collective (VanSPC) is a non-profit society bringing together photographers from Vancouver and beyond to create and share diverse street photography approaches and aesthetics. We are founded on the principles of exploration, engagement, and inclusion. We strive to offer a welcoming space to learn about, practise and display street photography through meetups, exhibitions, publications and simply walking the streets to discover new moments of inspiration.

Visit and follow our instagram here @van_spc and check out our exhibiting photographers’ account links below.

Photographer Biographies

Adam Koebel @elkandmoth

An incidental documentarian, Adam shoots in both analog and digital, capturing the infinite rectangles of daily life in whatever mundane or chaotic configuration they present themselves in.

Ali Arby @ali.arby_

Ali Arby is a street photographer based out of Vancouver. He is equally drawn to finding candid moments with surreal compositions and simply documenting city life. Most of his work is focused in his native Vancouver, but he regularly travels to other metropolises to capture a wide breadth of backdrops. What remains consistent is his photographing of human subjects, either by directly including them in the composition or by alluding to their presence abstractly.

Allan Florendo @Poetryinpixels

Philippine-born street photographer and explorer. Allan has been walking and capturing life and moments in the streets for quite sometime. Often times Allan sees in black and white and loves the drama and the emotion through the different shades of gray, black and white.

Ania Łuczak @Aniatakesphotos

Ania was born in Poland and is a person who fit the stereotypical European sensibilities of an independent liberated woman, accent and all. Ania shows her face in the play of mirrors or in the reflection of shop windows and handles light, angles, and framing in a controlled yet irreverent way. She's also fascinated by her own shadow. Much of Ania's street photography work leverages shapes and unique composition. Leverage reflections: Ania used reflections in her photos, either in windows, mirrors, or water.

Ariela Badenas @arielaaaaaaaa

Ariela Badenas is a Filipino-Canadian photographer based in the unceded land of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. She documents the world as she sees it with whatever camera she can get her hands on: from a 4x5 field camera to her iPhone. She finds something truly magical about seeing people and places as they are, and using the camera to express the candor of a single moment in time.

Barbara Strigel @barbarastrigel

Barbara Strigel is a photographer, collage artist and bookmaker living and working in Vancouver, British Columbia. She appreciates the open-endedness of street photography and the way it allows her to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.

C. Stephanie Glotman @instephagrams

C. Stephanie Glotman is a photographer from Vancouver, BC. She enjoys capturing fleeting moments out on the street. Stephanie is intrigued how nonfiction and fiction collide within the frame, .the non fiction being the photographer's experience and the fiction that follows as each viewer sees the image and creates their unique narrative.

Carol How @carol_how

Carol How is an expressive and artistic Photographer whose street photography is oriented towards humanity in their environmental surroundings of architecture, industrial and cityscapes. Her unique style leans to strong geometric shapes and abstractions. Carol often chooses to use in camera techniques of multiple exposure, camera movement and slow shutter to express and enhance her vision and to provoke emotion from the viewer. Carol is represented by The Commotion gallery thecommotion.ca  and in 2022 had an online solo exhibit of her abstract architectural images titled "Towering". 

Chelsea Ker @kerandcamera

Chelsea Ker is a born and raised Vancouverite whose photography may best be described as "observations in the ordinary". She is drawn to those overlooked moments on the street that strike the balance between utility and beauty, the mundane and the comedic.

Chris McCann @tatsu_is_tatsu

Through her photography, Chris strives to craft images that transcend time and place, evoking a visceral connection and stirring emotions within the viewer. Employing techniques like intentional camera movement, motion blur, and double exposures, while drawing inspiration from Expressionist and Surrealist art, she turns ordinary scenes into dreamscapes.

Cory Bujnowicz @corybujnowicz

Cory Bujnowicz is a Canadian documentary and fine art photographer currently based in Vancouver, BC. His work is inspired by his interest in the way we inhabit our spaces.

Craig Sheppard @crg_shpprd

Craig Sheppard is British/Canadian photographer. Specializing in experimental and long exposure photography, Craig's artistic passion lies in showcasing Vancouver's streets from unique angles. Through a blend of traditional film and modern digital cameras, he continually explores diverse techniques to offer fresh insights into the city's essence.

Daniel Mosquin @danielmosquin

Daniel Mosquin is a Burnaby-based photographer. By genre, his work ranges from street to nature, from portraiture to landscape. The threads that weave together these genres are a persistent sense of wonder, an ongoing search for the beauty of the moment, and a dedication to craft.

David J. Del Grande @dj_del_grande

David J. Del Grande was raised in the New York City area but currently calls Tucson, Arizona home. From newspaper work to fine art exhibitions, Del Grande’s work has been shown from Rome to Glasgow. Whether shooting a documentary or minting abstract work on the blockchain, Del Grande possesses a keen eye for capturing reality or pushing our world a tread past the surreal.

David James Papa @nixon73

David was born in Vancouver and has taken photographs since he was a teenager. In the last five years he has made photography a more serious endeavour. He primarily shoots street photography at night in the lower mainland. David tends to use 50mm manual focus lenses such as his Voigtlander 50mm f1.2 lens, which many of his recent photos were captured with.

Doris Fiedrich @doris.allegory

Doris Fiedrich is a German-Canadian photographer living in Vancouver. In her street photography, she aims for the unexpected moments that disappear almost as quickly as she can raise her camera. Her intent lies in recording people’s unselfconscious behaviours and gestures. An observant eye and many years of experience as a portrait and event photographer have sharpened her artistry; on the streets, she reacts swiftly and instinctively. Doris’s work has been shown in various group and solo exhibitions, including at Artists in our Midst and at PhotoHaus Gallery, and has been published in print and online media.

Francis Karl P. dela Peña @mactuscraig

Born in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, Karl took interest in photography when he was working in Dubai as a special education teacher. Having moved to Vancouver for over five years now, Karl continues to carry the same passion. Through his lens he captures the everyday in a unique perspective, celebrating the diversity of people, as well as the connections he makes.

Gaëtan Harris @Gaetanharris

Gaëtan Harris is a multidisciplinary artist from Winnipeg who now calls Vancouver home. His street photography is of the "slow" variety: often devoid of humans and focusing on the small things that go unnoticed in our daily lives. His photography practice is meditative, welcoming viewers to slow down and appreciate details that bring beauty and life to the world around us.

Graham Peterson  @grahampeterson.photos

Graham Peterson is a multimedia artist working in audio-visual arts, animation, and photography. Drawing on his professional background in the film and animation industries, Graham brings a cinematic approach to his work behind the lens as a street photographer. His work is predominantly captured on 35mm and 120 film, and reinforces the act of mindfulness in capturing moments of humour in the mundane, the narrative around people in their environments, and isolation in public spaces. Graham lives and works in the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples in what is now known as Vancouver, BC. You can find his work at grahampeterson.org

Gunter Siegmund @guntersiegmund

Gunter Siegmund is a Vancouver-born photographer who currently resides in the Los Angeles area. His street photographs aim to capture ordinary urban moments that reveal the diversity, harmony, complexity, and beauty of city life.

Ian Heffernan @hephph

Ian Heffernan is an Irish photographer living and working in Vancouver BC. Endlessly fascinated by people he walks around the city for hours on end pursuing some chance opportunity that something interesting will happen. It usually doesn't.

Ivan Lee @ivancityphotog

Ivan is a Vancouver based photographer with an eye on capturing rhymes and rhythms of everyday life. He loves to explore all parts of the city from bustling downtown streets to quite alley ways and lively festivals.Through his photography Ivan captures authentic scenes of the city offering a glimpse into the stories of everyone woven into the urban fabric.

Jae Ryan @streets.by.jae

Jae Ryan started making photos after moving to Vancouver from Edmonton 2 years ago. He enjoys shooting everything but has recently focused on trying to capture Vancouver in a way that feels timeless. Working mostly with black and white film, Jae sees just as much value in documenting quiet, simple and delicate moments as he does the grandiose.

Jake Wong @2XU2XU

Jake Wong is a street photographer raised in Vancouver's Strathcona neighbourhood. There is only one piece of advice Jake has for new street photographers and that is to set no rules for yourself. Shoot how you feel and how you see. Under expose, over expose, multiple expose, blur, underarm, tilted, upsidedown...whatever. Just go shoot.

Jason Lapeyre @lapeyre

Jason is a writer/director working in film and television who has been based in Vancouver since 2021. He grew up an army brat and lived all over the place, including India, Germany and Japan. He’s been shooting street photography as a dedicated amateur since the ‘90s, starting in film and aggressively resisting the transition to digital. In recent years he’s fallen hard for medium format, even though it makes street shooting way harder. His favourite street photographers are Vivian Meier, Weegee, Bill Cunningham and Ricky Powell. You can see more of his work at jasonlapeyre.com

Jax Kokuryo @jaykayseven

Jax appreciates the quiet suburban life of Burnaby Heights but is compelled by the gritty streets of Chinatown and East Hastings where she grew up. Her style could be described as humanistic, layered and emotive. She uses street photography as a vehicle for community engagement and service, and prefers to save the drama for her photos.

Jim Lowrie @jlowriephotography

Jim Lowrie is a Vancouver based photographer who has an interest in street, travel, and landscape photography. In his photography, Jim aims to capture unique moments in time and the interplay between people and the built urban environment.

Jon Chater @jon_chater_photography

Jon is a Vancouver-based photographer who moved to Canada from the UK in 2019. When shooting in the street, Jon is drawn primarily to light, colour, shape and pattern. His preferred method is to find a scene with interesting light and some strong graphical elements, then wait for a human figure (usually) to enter the scene. Often, he underexposes the figure creating a silhouette which acts to simplify the image and preserves the privacy of the subject. Jon also teaches on the Professional Photography program at Langara College. Teaching involves constantly breaking down the photographic process into its various components and analysing how photographs can communicate their story more effectively. This approach constantly feeds into his own photographic practice. His photographic influences include Ray Metzker, William Eggleston, Fan Ho and Saul Leiter.

Justin D. Trueman @justintrueman

Justin Trueman is a passionate street photographer based in Vancouver, BC. With an unwavering curiosity for the world around him, Justin's photography showcases the mundane with a unique blend of candid moments, artistic composition, and a keen eye for storytelling. Join Justin on his photographic journey as he continues to explore the world one frame at a time. Follow him on Instagram (@justintrueman) to stay updated on his latest work and upcoming exhibitions.

Justin Scott @illcatchup

Justin Scott is a born-and-raised Vancouverite whose photography aims to capture the organic moments of the world around him. From the streets and paths of Vancouver, to those afar, he has an eye for scenes that tell a story, create curiosity, or reflect the experience of being wherever he finds himself.

Kathryn Ford @katymight

Kathryn Ford is a street photographer who regards herself as a visual magpie when it comes to photography, documenting what she notices around her. She tries to be compassionate and respectful while photographing people on the street, and to remember the humanity in her subjects. She believes in letting her photographs speak for themselves. Kathryn lives on unceded Coast Salish territory.

Kent Harkness @psyclops_photography

Kent Harkness was born in Montreal and has lived in Vancouver since 1994. He’s always had an interest in the arts, whether that’s music, drawing, brewing or photography. Having been blind in one eye for more than 25 years, photography has felt like a natural fit being a 2 dimensional medium. He looks for different perspectives, framing and subjects that reflect his curiosity and love of all things odd, beautiful and different. He loves wandering the streets, wherever that may be, in the centre of town to the backstreets and alleys of the downtown east side. His website can be found at kentharknessphotography.com

Kris Hooper  @kris.hooper

Kris Hooper is a photographer working in the candid/street tradition. His work draws from the clutter of the streets, its architecture, and its diverse inhabitants. His process involves searching for scenes of momentary and oblique interest, where the full significance of a frame remains somewhat veiled. He frequently shoots in black and white film to heighten form and texture and impart a graphic quality to his compositions. He resides in Vancouver, BC.

Lily Hawrysh @lilyhawrysh

Lily Hawrysh was born and raised in Vancouver’s Hasting-Sunrise neighbourhood, and currently resides in Burnaby. A street photographer who relies on chance and opportunity, her images reference a sense of home and place, both historical and contemporary. She is currently a member of BBY_X and VANSPC street photography collectives.

Liza Navarro @lizanav.photo

Liza is originally from the big, busy and bustling streets of Houston, Texas. She is a proud woman of color whose roots stem from Puerto Rico. Growing up in Houston exposed her to a diverse way of life full of culture, love and respect for one another. Now she is based in Vancouver, British Columbia on unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She strongly believes that all we have in life are moments. Moments that bring us together, moments that remind us why we are here, moments that question our preconceived notions and moments that put things into perspective. When she’s not working on her PhD in language education, she’s capturing these moments on her camera.

Max Richter @therealmaxrichter

Max Richter is an Architect who was born and grew up in the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations (Vancouver). He uses his phone to capture images of his travels through the urban and natural landscapes that he encounters.

Miguel Franco @miguel_visual_artist

Miguel Franco was born and raised in Mexico, where he nourished his artistic endeavours from the cultural richness, tasty flavours and colourful street life. Designer by trade, always had a special place in his heart and gut for photography. Vancouver allow him to take his passion for street photography to a new level, a fun level. His eye filtered by his own life experiences, has made his photography cohesive and with a style that can be unveiled on every single capture that will make you wonder if you are looking at the picture or the picture is looking at you.

Mike Wong @sureshot_mikew123

As a civil designer and drafter, Mike was naturally drawn to photography. Inspired by the likes of Vivian Maier, Fred Herzog and William Eggleston, Mike seeks beauty in details while documenting everyday life.

Natalie Chan @3layerphotos

Natalie was born and raised in Vancouver. Her love of photography started early and developed with her love of traveling. Natalie finds street photography, a meditative process. It's a fantastic way of remaining present and seeing creatively. Her photography style gravitates towards the urban landscape and the raw emotions of every day life.

Nathan Griffiths @njgriffiths

Nathan is a visual journalist and aspiring street photographer; exploring the juncture of graphic design and documentary photography.

Phil Chornohus @phil.a.c

Phil Chornohus is a film photographer living in New Westminster. His work focuses on the overlooked realities of urban life and the odd but sometimes charming impact residents have on their environment.

Reimar Koch @MarkinVan.Look

Reimar Koch is a Vancouver based photographer whose technique could be described as piscatorial. Detail and story are the goal. A good walk brings that all together.

Rhiannon Catton @rhiannoncat

Rhiannon Catton is a Vancouver based Video Game Artist and Street Photographer. As part of her work for the game industry she finds herself on many photographic adventures seeking out inspiration and reference. Out of these many photo sessions evolved a fascination with wandering and capturing scenes in the street. Through her photography, Rhiannon attempts to freeze life’s fleeting instances… the sense of aloneness, beauty and struggle in an urban environment.

Rolf Erni @henryhotshoe

Rolf Erni has a background in typography and the graphic arts. Born in Switzerland Rolf resides now in the city of Vancouver where many of his photographs are made. His interest lies in capturing the interplay of light, contrast, and the human figure in the streets of the city. Street photography offers him the opportunity to linger with purpose and be ready for the unexpected.

Sandra Proceviat @sandraproceviat

Sandra was born and raised in Vancouver. She enjoys photographing people in urban and rural landscapes. Observing and photographing people’s style, emotions, their connection to their environment and the things they leave behind are the key subjects in her photographs.

Sharon Wish @bluechameleon

Born and raised Vancouver, Canada, Sharon is drawn to shapes, shadows and silhouettes in the urban landscape. She sees herself in her compositions of that single expressive figure, lost in the melancholy of Vancouver; creating a mood of being alone in a city that is constantly changing. Her genre of photography includes street photography and the urban landscape, as well as landscape photography.

Shelley Lai @swslai

Shelley Lai is a photographer born and based in Vancouver, the unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. Working in film and digital formats, she has been photographing Vancouver streets for more than 17 years. With a watchful eye, she creates a timeless mood or scene: capturing ordinary people doing everyday things against a backdrop of the city’s historic streets and buildings.

Simon Collins @Quattrophoto2022

Born in London, Simon grew up in rural England before emigrating to Canada as a teenager. Calling Vancouver his Canadian home, he has also lived and worked in Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and in France. Studying at BCIT, SFU and UBC, his professional life has focused on Journalism and Education which has created a photographic framework for his images based on story-telling and teaching. He believes that each image holds a lesson, both in its acquisition and its display, and each lesson results in more questions than answers, inevitably leading to more photographs. Having traveled through Europe, South East Africa, South America and most recently to South East Asia, Simon acknowledges that each person’s definition of “street” may be defined by their environment and their experience; however, he has always and will always aim to chose the one less travelled.

Ted Nodwell @tednodwell

Ted Nodwell is drawn to the human stories that become visible as he wanders the streets. An advertising and corporate photographer for more than twenty years, he now uses his camera to illustrate even the smallest actions of individuals, which become threads woven into the bigger tapestry of daily life. His photographs have been exhibited in Out of Bounds, Whistler Arts Council / Working World, Museum of Vancouver / Moments: Life As We Live It, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden / Western Canadian Contemporary Artists, Imago Mundi Collection Italy / International Arts Exhibition of Guiyang China and Burnaby Canada, Art Museum of Guiyang China / and Urban Gaze, Vancouver Street Photography Collective.

Terry Sanderson @ogphotosog

Terry Sanderson enrolled in the Vancouver Film School's 3D Animation and Visual Effects program when it first started in 1998, and his longstanding love of film, photography, and composition has converged with street photography and digital media, presenting him with fresh creative avenues to investigate. He mainly shoots in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, as well as generally around the West Coast

Vadim Marmer @vadimmarmer

Vadim has been practicing street photography for 20 years. He looks for moments with meanings and emotions and tries to capture them as transparently as possible. It's his third year as a VanSPC member.