Photography, The Medium of Our Time

A look back at Capture Photography Festival’s ‘Here and Now’ exhibition, including interviews with Festival Director, Emmy Lee Wall, and Audain Travel Award recipient, Khim Hipol

08.11.23

With the ambitious mandate of connecting Vancouver to the world through lens-based art, Capture Photography Festival’s mission aligns with the Audain Foundation’s ongoing commitment to raising the profile of British Columbia’s artists through the Audain Prize. One of Canada’s most prestigious honours, the Audain Prize is awarded annually to a senior artist in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the arts, elevating such artists nationally and internationally. Throughout its history, Capture has exhibited works by many of the Audain Prize winners, and most recently, an Audain Travel Award recipient. Travel Awards, which were introduced in 2019, are administered annually to post-secondary student artists in conjunction with the Audain Prize.

Celebrating Capture’s tenth anniversary in the spring of 2023 involved commissioning local artists to create new lens-based artworks, to be featured in Here and Now, an exhibition at the Pendulum Gallery. A location that Capture is drawn to year-over-year, Pendulum is an important space as it bridges an accessibility gap between the traditional private gallery space and the somewhat unconstrained realm of public art, often existing at opposite ends of the spectrum. “The Pendulum Gallery is highly visible from the street and sits in the glass encased lobby of an office tower,” explains Emmy Lee Wall, Capture’s Executive Director. “I love that this is a space people encounter daily without necessarily seeking out a contemporary art experience.”

Working within spaces not typically reserved for the exhibition of artworks, or “non-traditional” spaces, is what Emmy Lee Wall finds particularly fulfilling. “One of the most exciting aspects of the Festival, and one of the main reasons I wanted to work with Capture,” Wall explains, “is the public art program, which positions compelling imagery in the public sphere making it highly accessible to all. Providing meaningful encounters with contemporary art to a broad, diverse public is exciting for me.”

When asked what makes bringing lens-based art into the public sphere so important, Wall responds swiftly and pointedly: “photography is the medium of our time.” It is, perhaps, also one of the most prolific mediums of the moment. “Information is shared, now more than ever, through imagery,” describes Wall, “so visual literacy has become a critical skill that needs to be honed. Coupled with that is the power and responsibility of lens-based imagery especially in relation to representation.”

Here and Now, presented by the Audain Foundation, was curated by Emmy Lee Wall alongside colleague Chelsea Yuill and featured artists selected for their varied approaches to photography. “I really wanted to acknowledge the artists living, working, and taking inspiration from Vancouver,” explains Wall. “We commissioned 10 artists to create new works that responded in some way to the city – its history, its people, its culture, its landscape – and the results were as diverse as the artists themselves. Their expansive investigations delve into the histories of this place, the material culture here, the changing streetscapes, cultural inheritance, and sites of leisure: intangible but formative elements of the city.”

Here and Now brought together the work of emerging, mid-career, and senior artists, including Jaiden George, Tom Hsu, Alexine McLeod, Dana Qaddah, Isaac Thomas, Gloria Wong, Jin-me Yoon, Karen Zalamea, as well as Ian Wallace, 2022 Audain Prize winner, and Khim Hipol, 2022 Audain Travel Award recipient. Wall describes this as an effort to place the work of emerging artists “in exhibitions that connect them to established, respected artists who already have an audience. It places their work in dialogue and creates connections with that which has come before.”

Similarly, through its recognition of the lifelong achievements of established Canadian artists, the Audain Prize is an important source of inspiration for emerging and mid-career artists following in those footsteps. “Vancouver is particularly celebrated for a group of conceptual artists working in photography, but they achieved success elsewhere before being locally recognized,” continues Wall. “The Audain Prize works to celebrate our own and honour the huge impact that senior artists have had on our community. This kind of recognition is both well- deserved by the artists receiving it and inspirational for future generations of artists.”

Part of that future generation is emerging Vancouver-based artist, Khim Hipol. “I first met Khim in 2021 when I started teaching at Emily Carr University as part of a collaborative educational partnership between Capture and ECU,” explains Wall. “I was immediately impressed with his commitment to his practice, his work ethic, and his deep involvement in the community. I really wanted to include a diverse range of artists in Here and Now, both emerging and established, and I felt Khim’s work would find a strong context in the exhibition. The images he showed celebrate his experience as an immigrant to Canada as well as questioning the significance of national identity, a narrative that many people will relate to.”

To Hipol, being included in the Here and Now exhibition was an important opportunity to utilize the platform of lens-based art to share his lived experiences with identity and immigration. The installation included works from Hipol’s Oh Canada series, as well as the Anak ng Lupang Hinirang series, which he refers to as his Filipino series. “The idea of identity and immigration was really important,” describes Hipol. “When I was doing my Filipino series, I was mostly interested in the identity of nationalism in the Philippines. During that project I obtained my Canadian citizenship and so that sort of complicated how I understood identity. For a lot of people, when they move to Canada, they are looking forward to having the identity of being Canadian. But what does that identity really tie to?”
As one of the largest immigrant groups to Canada, Hipol is particularly drawn to the exploration of Filipino identity within Vancouver, and Canada as a whole. He reflects upon the invisibility of Filipinos within traditional representation of Canadian culture, as well as their absence from socio-political systems and decision-making processes. “There is so much value in learning about someone else’s culture and I think art gives us that platform. It gives us the ability to connect with each other about our similarities and differences.” Sharing his experiences through such a relatable medium, and in an accessible space, allowed for broad public engagement with these themes and ideas during Here and Now. “In a conversation about identity,” Hipol continues, “everyone wants to learn, and in the simplest way. I think that art engages with that. I hope it does.”

The Anak ng Lupang Hinirang series was, and continues to be, hugely impacted by Hipol’s recognition in 2022 as an Audain Travel Award recipient. For the spring and summer of 2023, the Award has allowed Hipol to return to the Philippines to conduct important research and work on the series. “I’ve been wanting to go back,” shares Kim. “It’s been six years. I’m excited, but also anxious, but mostly excited. A lot of information is very restricted, because of networks and data, and you can only get it in the Philippines.” In Canada, “I can only base Filipino history on the Internet or books, so being in the actual place where you can find the institution that holds these histories – that’s what I want to take advantage of.”

Not only has the Award provided direct financial support to facilitate these travels, Hipol places immense value in having the financial stability needed to focus on continuously learning and making art. Being an Audain Travel Award recipient in 2022 also meant being a part of the award ceremony for the 2022 Audain Prize recipient, Ian Wallace. “Before, I was just learning about him in art history class. Then we were awarded on the same day together,” says Hipol, smiling. “I giggle every time I see all the artists, I see them as stars. Now I’m part of this bigger scope. It challenges me to have my own voice. To bring on my own conversations, while similarly, it pushes me to challenge my perspective. It changes my perspective on how I make work now.”