The Ticket: Capture Photography Festival

Vancouver produces world-renowned photography, and it’s on display for all of April

Every day this month, Vancouver’s photography and lens-based art community is celebrating, and you’re invited. The Capture Photography Festival is currently on its third iteration with a strong mandate to shed a light on the local and international talent that our city hosts. The month-long festival consists of free public installations, over 50 gallery exhibitions, as well as film screenings and panel ­­­­­discussions about the artists, their art, and the medium. “Very few people are aware of how special our community is, and this is our way of sharing the vibrant talent that exists,” says Kim Spencer-Nairn, the founder and the creative director of the festival.“Our festival is celebrating something that Vancouver is actually internationally recognized for but that so many people are completely unaware of,” Spencer-Nairn says. “A number of the world’s top fine art photographers live and practice in Vancouver, such as Jeff Wall, Stan Douglas, Rodney Graham, and many others.” With the goal of bringing attention to the talent within, the festival has embraced an expansive and inclusive strategy to showcase art. One of the public installations is displayed throughout Canada Line SkyTrain stations so people can admire it during their daily commute—or conveniently take public transit for a complete tour. To complement the art on display, the festival is hosting a range of artist talks, panel discussions, and a speaker series. Instead of simply displaying art, Capture is seeking to build bridges with Vancouver by enabling personal connections. “We want to make people proud of what we do and also help new artists discover the community we have,” says Vilhelm Sundin, the winner of the first-ever Lind Prize for Emerging Artists, which was announced at the opening night of the festival.The Capture Photography festival lets you choose what exhibits to go to and whom to listen to at various talks. It is, in other words, an ideal way to get immersed in the world of lens-based art and learn about why Vancouver provides a good environment to develop and practice photography and film. As more people rediscover photography through their phones and Instagram, Capture wants to use that momentum to demonstrate the beauty of photography. “I think that the more we are saturated with images, the more true talent and fine art images can stand out,” Spencer-Nairn says, “and we want to draw attention to that talent.”