Interview

Nocturnal Landscapes in Photography: Greg Girard

March 16, 2021

As part of the Nocturnal Landscapes project, photographer and sociologist David Schalliol is leading a series of conversations with photographers who regularly work at night.

Contributors

The inaugural conversation is with noted Vancouver-based photographer Greg Girard, who has photographed such cities as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vancouver since the 1970s. As Greg discusses in the interview, much of this work is from personal projects made during an era when he was busy working on magazine features. Still, he was able to carve out time for nuanced work that uses the particular features of the night to reveal such things as the everyday rhythms of the city and the changing global influence of the United States.

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Silver Grill Cafe, 6am. 1975. © Greg Girard.

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Platform conductor, Ikebukuro Station, 1976. © Greg Girard.

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Japan, 1988. © Greg Girard.

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#44 Dong Fangbang Lu, 2006. © Greg Girard.

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Kitty Hawk and ATM, Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, 2008. © Greg Girard.

This event is part of the ongoing Nocturnal Landscapes: Urban Flows of Global Metropolises initiative. The project provides a comprehensive look at global metropolises at night, combining analysis and observation, questioning the correlation of human activity and light, and revealing hidden aspects of our cities.

This event has been supported by the Barcelona City Council – Institut de Cultura de Barcelona.

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