PHOTOGRAPH: BRIT KWASNEY
Gold
ARTS
Shira VANCOUVER’S MOST VISIONARY FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHER
AFTER QUITTING DANCE AS A CHILD BECAUSE she just wasn’t wired to follow the rules, fine art photographer Shira Gold decided to make her own rules and is now one of Canada’s most influential artists. This rule-defying realization at a young age, compounded with the fact that her mother was one of the first administrators of Arts Umbrella, a visual and performing arts school in Vancouver, contributed to her now passionate artistic path. “The school had become a refuge for me as I found academics challenging. When I first learned photography at the age of 11, I found myself living in the dark room. Being
behind a lens really allowed me to engage with other people confidently, and I was able to start to learn the visual expression of my own thoughts and feelings. As a child and teenager, I’d always be sitting and waiting for my mom at the school on Granville Island. The Island is an artisan hub, full of local artists and markets, and I would always look out the window at the artist studios and think how much I would love to be a photographer and have a space there. Then a couple of years ago I got a call that one of these studios that I used to stare at so longingly across from Arts Umbrella was available.”
BY LAUREN BENS
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