This workshop will invite participants into a conversation about the ethics of photography and developing relationships that lead to collaboration. Artist Jeff Bierk will share his work and experience while living and photographing people—telling the story of the lessons and mistakes that pushed him to develop a generative and collaborative practice. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring questions and examples of work, problems and ideas into this workshop to share and discuss as a group.
Jeff Bierk (b. 1982, Peterborough, ON) is a photo based artist, living in Toronto. He is co-founder of the Jimmy James Evans Friendly Meeting Place and Centre for the Arts (1616 Dupont, 2018-2022). Predominantly known for his portraiture, Bierk’s work poses serious questions about the ethics of street photography and photojournalism. His work has been exhibited nationally, engaging themes that grapple with grief, addiction, homelessness, and settler colonial constructs of beauty and masculinity. Through a practice of collaborative photography, Bierk and his collaborators disrupt the formal definition and economics of photojournalism, and problematize the idea of the photographer as sole author of the photograph.
