By the time that Greg Girard took a photograph of a young Beijing swimmer’s gaze in Summer of 1995, he was already an old hand in Asia. That’s because the Vancouver photographer did something unusual in the 1970s for a kid born in Vancouver—he chose to settle in Asia. He was hooked after taking his first trip to Hong Kong in 1974 and his first trip to Tokyo in 1976.
Girard ended up spending 30 years overseas—living at separate times in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai—before returning to Vancouver in 2011.
Several photographs from these eras are included in the Polygon Gallery’s first institutional survey of his work, entitled Greg Girard. The exhibition will be at the North Vancouver public gallery from July 10 to October 25.
Gallery director Reid Shier and Elliott Ramsey co-curated Greg Girard.
“When people think of Greg Girard, they often call to mind images of urban settings at night, long exposures, empty streets, and neon lights,” Ramsey says in a news release announcing the exhibition.