Greg Girard's first career survey opens at North Vancouver's Polygon Gallery

The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver has opened the first-ever career survey of celebrated documentary photographer Greg Girard, a retrospective that spans 50 years and many creative periods of his life.

Co-curated by the Polygon's director Reid Shier and curator Elliott Ramsey, the exhibition surprised even those familiar with Girard's work. "That Girard has never had a full survey is surprising," Shier said, noting that Vancouver artists often need to head elsewhere to gain wider recognition.

Girard's early work took inspiration from Vancouver's grittier neighbourhoods of the 1970s. As a teenager, he rented inexpensive hotel rooms in the Downtown Eastside and dock areas to immerse himself in the community, taking photos purely for himself. Many photographs carry the funk of now-vanished Vancouver haunts — greasy spoon diners lit by neon signs, the men's washroom at the CN train station, and shabby-glamorous hotel lobbies. For viewers old enough to remember establishments like the Aristocratic diner on Granville Street, the pull of nostalgia is powerful.

Girard's international work emerged after a 1974 summer when, as a teenager, he hopped a freighter across the Pacific, inspired by a 1962 photo of Hong Kong Harbour by American photojournalist Eliot Elisofon. He spent significant time in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Beijing, documenting massive change. He noted that he missed some of the most significant events, including Tiananmen Square — he was in Beijing at the time, but travelled to Hong Kong to buy more film stock when the infamous 1989 government crackdown took place.

One might pass Girard on the street without clocking him as an internationally famous photographer. He has a curious effect of disappearing into the background — handy for an artist whose images have required him to embed himself in communities across the world.