Western Sydney University Alum, Allison Hawks for WSU Gradlife

We’re so excited to find our work resonating with folks on the other side of the world, so much so that we got a call from Australia! More specifically from Western Sydney University. It’s so cool to be able to do what we do here, but for someone else on another corner of the planet. When they assigned us this project with their alum, Allison Hawks, we knew exactly what to do and how to do it! Though born and raised in Toronto, Allison spent her student days at Western Sydney University. She has been out of school and back home for some time so we connected with her one beautiful afternoon, meeting at Humber Bay, to shoot a few photos of her in her WSU gear.

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Ralph Nigro for Ontario Principals Council

One of our favourite shoots of the year is always with the Ontario Principals Council. It is always a joy working with the same team over the years, and in this case we always have a new face to photograph. The acting President of this year is Ralph Nigro, who we photographed at OPC housing HQ in downtown Toronto. Principals come from all around the province and with OPC’s office based right beside the Eaton Centre they have a condo unit for those who spend their term working in the city.

It can be a bit difficult working in the same space year after year and finding something new to do. Our last few sessions have been on the same rooftop but I think we have lucked out with having such an amazing view of the city from that high up that using the same backdrop over and over still looks as beautiful as the first time. Ralph was warm and welcoming, and very generous with his time. It’s no secret that photographers will often say “ok just 1 more thing” and then think of one more thing to do, and one more thing, and one more thing, and Ralph was incredibly patient with this. We had a beautiful and bright morning on our shoot day which ordinarily would be great but in this case was just a biiiit too bright for anyone to open their eyes all the way so we used a scrim to diffuse as necessary.

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Headshot Day with Kasian Architecture

We were excited to have gotten a call from Kasian Architecture to photograph updated portraits for, and at, their Toronto office. Most of their staff were still on WFH at the time so for a lot of folks coming in, this was their first time back since pre-pandemic. To make the most of everyone’s day in office they also planned their staff party for later that evening so everyone was all dressed up and ready to go for both photos and a party (leaving us with good looking ppl with upbeat, celebratory, attitudes)!

With a huge team spanning the country they wanted their photos to match other existing ones; giving a relaxed but professional feel and specifically meeting design requirements of being right justified to fit their site and internal formatting. Being an architecture firm there was no surprise that they have a beautiful and bright office space in Liberty Village. We opted for shooting the more formal headshot set ups in the lobby area as well as some staged ‘working’ / in action photos in the conference room with folks efficiently bouncing from Stef to Ethan for their sitting.

When people think of headshot day it always reminds them (even us) of picture day at school, but we love making it something better and giving folks a profile photo they can feel happy and confident about!

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Arctic/Amazon Mural at TMU

We’re so honoured to have photographed the making of a public large scale art installation by Indigenous artists Niap (Nancy Saunders) from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Quebec, and Olinda Reshijabe Silvano from Lima, Peru. This installation is a part of a larger project, from the press announcement: “Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity, an expansive curatorial program originated by the Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge. Curated by Gerald McMaster, the mural is a collaboration between Indigenous artists Niap (Nancy Saunders), and Olinda Reshinjabe Silvano who respectively hail from these two regions.”

We spent a few days with the artists as they worked from their base at OCAD creating the mural from beginning to end. It’s always interesting and fun to see other artists as they work, and even more so in this capacity; two very different artists, with some of a language barrier, collaborating. As much as our assignment is to photograph the process of this mural being created it was important to us to not be too intrusive and disrupt their workflow so we took turns shooting from afar, only seldomly using flash, and every so often choosing the right moment to get in close for more detail focused shots.

Upon completion the mural was photographed, printed in a more weather-proof paper, and enlarged to 12 x 8 metres. The installation is located on the west facing wall of Kerr Hall at Gould Street and Nelson Mandela Walk. Read more about the project on TMU’s site here and about the Arctic/Amazon on the Wapatah site here.

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