Galleries all over the province are hosting photography exhibits this month as part of the annual Exposure Photography Festival.
In Calgary, Sparrow Artspace is hosting an exhibit called From Nothing to Something Else, from Brayden Kowalczuk and David Christensen.
Both Kowalczuk and Christensen share a passion for large format cameras, the kind used in the 19th century to document historical moments like the expansion of the railway out west and settler life on the prairies.
“It’s kind of like the most simple form of a camera,” said Kowalczuk. “The good thing about using the 8x10 camera is the quality – even though the camera looks ‘old timey’ – it’s actually quite detailed. The film negative is actually the size of a piece of paper (eight x 10 inches), so you can imagine all the detail that you can get in that.”
In a digital world, there are a few downfalls with the large format camera.
Kowalczuk says it’s a slow process to take a photo and the gear is heavy – weighing in at 18 kilograms – but he creates moments with the subjects of his photos while he’s setting up a shot.
“I think a lot of the times when you’re trying to make a picture what is compelling, at least for me, is that middle state of not fully being aware (of the process),” he said. “And I think this camera is a good tool to kind of like capture that in people.”
Kowalczuk likes to tell a story with his photos.
He says seeing just one on its own may not speak to the viewer, but when they’re positioned in a row can speak volumes.
“I think what’s great about photographic narrative is if you sequence photos in a particular way, you can almost engage the viewer,” he said. “And almost kind of suggest something that might be compelling that they might not have not felt or understood before.”
Christensen is showing a number of styles in his exhibition.
Some black and white images are taken in Italy, while others are advertising product pictures of large format negatives taken in the 1960s.
“The Exposure Photography Festival is a great festival during the month of February,” he said. “There’s so many different kinds of photography being exhibited all over the city. There’s such a range of photographic work being done in the city, and I think for Calgary to sort of devote a month to the photographic image is fantastic, there’s so much for everybody to see.”
Christensen is also a filmmaker and says he enjoys the challenge of capturing a moment in time.
“What photography does is it makes you pay attention to the world, it makes you look a second time,” he said.
“What we’re asking viewers is to take a moment to look at something that they may have just gone by in any other sort of circumstance, to slow down, just take a moment, like the camera took a moment to actually look at something.”
Sandra Neill, owner of Sparrow ArtSpace, says this is the fourth year her gallery has taken part in the festival.
She says it’s not just an exhibition of artists’ work, but a residency where the public can see the artists at work creating and experimenting with different photographic techniques.
“The festival organizes their own exhibitions at Contemporary Calgary and downtown,” she said. “Organizers invite other galleries and really any spaces to participate.”
“it’s wonderful that it’s so inclusive and there’s so many interesting photography exhibits to see.”
Sparrow is also featuring the work of Milo Dlouhy, who creates all kinds of paintings and then takes portraits of people emersed in his work.
“I mean, I like (photographing) people, but mainly I’m obsessed with my work, and so putting the two together and just kind of make sense,” he said.
“They’re part of the art. They are, in a in a sense, the art. I’m going to try to pull something out of them or draw something out of them, throw them off a little bit, find a real side to them (in the photo), something a little edgy, something real.”
“It’s not a regular portrait, it’s a work of art.”
