© Shane Thompson

We’re pleased to introduce Shane Thompson, recipient of the Shutter Hub Emerging Photographer Award at Exposure Photography Festival 2024.

Each year the Exposure Photography Festival presents the Emerging Photographers Showcase. The exhibition celebrates the rich talent of early-career practitioners who are based in the province. The exhibition offers an important professional development opportunity for Alberta-based photographers whilst providing them a gateway into the industry. The exhibition presents a broad range of works, including photojournalism and photo-collage, abstract and politically engaged photography, and works that embrace social and individual experience, as well as visual explorations of identity and personal narratives.

Shane is a self-taught photographer and printer based in Mohkinstsis, Treaty 7 Territory (Calgary, Alberta Canada). He works with a mix of film and digital with a strong concentration on medium format black and white photography and traditional wet printing. His work is influenced by long family road trips as a child, politics, the effects of capitalism and a deep desire to document the Alberta that once was before it disappears.

“Through Shane’s images I’m taken on a nostalgic tour, a road trip with windows down, moving through another time; through neighbourhoods I’d love to know and places that I would love to explore, places that look just like memories. What seem like postcards from the past now, will become important social and anthropological documents in the future, and I hope they’ll also become a book.” – Karen Harvey, Creative Director, Shutter Hub

© Shane Thompson

The images shown here were featured in Exposure Festival’s Emerging Photographer Showcase. This body of work is an exploration of the history of Alberta’s rural communities and main streets and the shifts that occur through the lens of the corporatization of agriculture and the departure of youth chasing the so-called “Alberta Advantage”. It is a way to document the ignored and abandoned underbellies of an increasingly urbanised province.

“I am incredibly pleased to be the recipient of the 2024 Shutter Hub Emerging Photographer Award. I am excited to be showcased to an international community on Shutter Hub and am looking forward to receiving advice and feedback from Karen Harvey. Photography has been a passion of mine for many years and to be recognized for a personal project documenting the Province in Canada where I am from is incredibly meaningful. Winning the Shutter Hub Emerging Photographer Award is a reminder to keep pursuing the work that means the most to you, constantly seek feedback and look for opportunities to share your work. This award and the opportunities afforded from it will provide me with motivation to keep pursuing different projects and keep chasing ideas. I am incredibly grateful for this.” – Shane Thompson

© Shane Thompson

© Shane Thompson

© Shane Thompson

See Shane’s Shutter Hub portfolio here. To find out more about Shane’s work, follow him on instagram, and visit his website here.