Get ready to take a trip around the world.
Through My Lens is the next art exhibit going up in the Chilliwack Art Gallery featuring captivating images by nine local photographers.
There will be loving snaps of local landmarks, and eye-opening images from half a world away.
Anyone who loves the immediacy and the intimacy of the photographic medium will find an eclectic smorg at the show, from portraits to photojournalism, from nudes to nature, and some landscapes, too.
The show spotlights the work of: Daryl Ball, Jim Britton, Lorraine Britton, Michael Hamilton-Clark, Delphine Gornall, Fred Gornall, Jenna Hauck, Josh Jenkins and Vickie Legere.
One of the images by photographer Daryl Ball captures the multi-coloured brilliance of tulips in bloom, with a snowy Mount Cheam in the background at sunset.
“It’s a rare shot. The light was perfect. Usually when the tulips are blooming it’s raining and cloudy. I had to sneak back in and climb a fence to take it when the sun was almost going down. That’s why I love that shot.”
He’s lived in Chilliwack “off and on” for about 60 years.
“So that view has been part of my life for a long time.”
He shoots everything but landscapes are always popular.
“They seem to be the best to show at galleries and they sell well. I’m always trying to figure out what people like.”
He has photos from most provinces across Canada, and the ones he submitted for the show are all landscapes.
“They’re all in high-definition colour,” he said.
Photographer Michael Hamilton-Clark took another approach.
“I like using black and white,” he said. “It helps focus attention on the subject. There are nice tonal differences with black and white, which don’t show in colour.”
He shot a traditional Arab vessel, known as a dhow, under sail coming into the creek at Dubai in the Middle East.
“The reason for it was those sorts of sail boats, even then in the late 60s, were beginning to disappear. That’s why I took the picture.”
Most were in the process of being converted from sailing vessels to ones powered by diesel engines.
His photos are from Oman, Dubai, and Morocco and mostly from the 60s and 70s.
“The reason I chose the six photographs that I did, was because I thought it would be fun to use some that were from half a world away. Places that people in Chilliwack perhaps had never seen before.”
“It was on purpose as well that I chose pictures from yesteryear, with the idea that they could be enjoyed later, and reminisced over in the future.”
Hamilton-Clark’s preference is for snapping images “as I see them” rather than posed shots.
“It’s things that catch my eye.”
Through My Lens at the Chilliwack Art Gallery inside the Cultch, June 29 to August 4, with the artists’ reception on July 9 at 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Still running at the Chilliwack Museum is the mixed media show, Shadows, weekdays 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until July 14.