Colin Boyd Shafer set out to photograph Torontonians born in every single country of the world. Cosmopolis in fact means ”a city inhabited by people from many different countries.”
While traveling, he was often told he looked “Canadian.” This never really made sense to him, given the fact that Canadians are extremely diverse.
Shafer took a portrait of his subjects in a place where they feel comfortable and ‘at home’ within the GTA. He then took another photograph featuring the person with an item that they feel connects them to their place of birth. These two photographs were paired with a short story and published on a website. Estonia is represented by Toronto Estonian Killi Mirka. Killi's photographs and story can be seen here:
Killi MirkaThe exhibition featuring Shafers project opened on Jan 15, 2014 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. More information and for the hours:
http://cosmopolistoronto.com/e...ABOUT THE ARTISTColin Boyd Shafer is a Canadian photographer and Social Sciences teacher whose photography focuses on documentary projects and street photography. He holds an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, UK. From 2008-2012. Shafer taught at Taylor’s College in Malaysia and founded the TEDx-featured ‘Everyone Has Hope Project’ wherein Malaysian college students teach photography to Burmese Refugees.
His photographs have won numerous competitions, the most recent being the 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival’s Photography Competition in London, UK. His work has been featured on the cover of Asian Photography Magazine and F-Stop Magazine as well as international publications like Salon, The New Internationalist, Foto8, and BBC News. His first book, Di Antara (2013), is available online and features photographs and written contributions from some of Malaysia’s most influential figures.
