The Vancouver Print Party
Last month Rachel Pick and I hosted an event we called The Vancouver Print Party.It was an under-the-radar kind of evening based on an idea to build community as Vancouver photographers. It was a way for us to take our work, and connections - so often in the digital sphere and make them tangible. We invited a select group of 20 photographers in Vancouver to come and display 1-20 images from a series of photos, a portfolio, or theme that they were working on, or proud of. It was curated invite list - limited to people that we both admired from different disciplines to make sure we had a varied show. The instructions on what to share were vague on purpose - we wanted it to be be informal a place to gather with talented people and talk about what we work on so hard behind the screen. I shared some work from the Yukon which I've now curated into an online gallery, Tomasz Wagner shared some incredible X-Pan images which he signed for a few of us to take home at the end, and Andrew Querner brought spreads from a beautiful book project he is working on.
We had a night talking about the thought and process behind projects we've been toying away at. Alexa Mazzarello shared a part of her Dreaming Plant Series which is officially opening at the Contact Photography Festival in Toronto this week, and Janis Nicolay - brought a beautiful series of photos from Turkey breaking from the interiors she usually shoots. It was perfect size to see everyone's work in the flesh, and to be able to spend a little more time hearing the stories behind the frames and the motivations that they stemmed from.
Lens and Shutter Photo came out with the support of Canon Canada to print large format photos on site for everyone to take home as a favour, Faculty Brewing beer was flowing, and Make Studios provided the backdrop.
Thank you to everyone who came out I know there is a few I missed mentioning above. I'm still on a high, and so thankful to have met, and shared the room with such great artists.
It was exactly what we hoped for; a night of community, and art. A success.
