Gavin John

Gavin is a member of the Indigenous Photograph Collective and a participant of the 2020 Room Up Front mentorship program for Canadian BIPOC photojournalists. His work has been featured by Withrow Commons Gallery in Toronto in 2018 and has a public exhibit by Arts Commons in Calgary in 2020. He has undergone HEFAT training with Global Journalist Security in Washington DC.

In his 10-year career he have has had the honour of covering some of Canadas and the worlds most important events for numerous new agencies as a photojournalist. his work has taken him to places of conflict, crisis, and unrest to document the lives and stories of people who have lived through traumatic and controversial events.

His work has given him an immense sense of purpose and pride. Events of tragedy and strife deserve to be documented through empathy, compassion, and professionalism, while challenging biases. He will be speaking on his career as a photojournalist and methods of documenting difficult, complicated, and complex issues.

As a visual storyteller, it can be a challenge to know where the lines of bias and tropes lie, and further challenging on how to tell stories accurately. He will share some of my experiences covering politically and socially complicated issues such as the War in Iraq, BLM protests in Seattle, and Indigenous affairs in Canada.