The province has a strong core of photography, and the Saskatchewan Prairie Light Photography Festival has set out to celebrate it. The initiative, scheduled for January to March 2014, will be a province-wide event to celebrate the talent the province and around the world, past and present.
Don Stein, Executive Director of the Godfrey Dean Art Gallery in Yorkton, says that the festival came from his realization that getting everyone in the province to coordinate their programming around one subject could make a province-wide festival possible.
In Yorkton, Stein says that the city is in a unique position where there are many internationally known photographers who live in the region, including arctic photographer Doug Barber and Kristopher Grunert, who has shot around the world. Stein says he also knows someone who was a studio assistant for Ansel Adams who is participating, as well as a Berlin-based photographer doing work on people in the workplace.
"It all came together, and not only could I have the idea for the festival, but I'm going to have some of the strongest photography programming in the province," he says.
The festival is unique in that it is bringing together galleries from across the province. Yorkton, Prince Albert, Swift Current, Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw are already part of the initiative, with other communities and organizations joining in.
"No other province could really do this, because all of the other provinces are organized around one or two major cities. Saskatchewan has that plus all these smaller centers which have really strong galleries."
For local photographers, the upcoming event offers a chance to meet different artists and the opportunity to participate in planned workshops. Stein says the festival also intends to be as inclusive as possible.
"Anybody can program photography during that time and see it included in the festival... All you have to do is find a place to hang it, it could be in your living room if you're willing to open your home to the public... That's really the beauty of the festival when you see it in Calgary or Toronto, anybody who wants to take part can take part, you pick what you're going to do, you pick the venue... It's a celebration of all kinds of photography," Stein says.
The festival will also make heavy use of an online component to connect the many different locations together. He notes that workshops are going to be broadcast online and people will be able to interact with the different galleries across the province.
In future years, the festival will run in March. The longer run for the first year is to give some flexibility when it comes to organizing a province-wide event.
Those who want to participate in the festival are invited to contact Don Stein at the Godfrey Dean Gallery at 306-786-2992 or [email protected].
He says that they are open to all photography and want to have as many local photographers as possible joining the event.
