Geoffrey James

Paying Attention
at the Fairmont Pacific Rim

With works by
Berenice Abbott
William Eggleston
Walker Evans
Fred Herzog
Geoffrey James
Vivian Maier
George Tice

In collaboration with Westbank’s Pacific Gallery at the Fairmont Pacific Rim, Equinox Gallery is pleased to present Paying Attention, a group exhibition featuring the work of Berenice Abbott, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Fred Herzog, Geoffrey James, Vivian Maier and George Tice. This exhibition looks at photographers whose work articulates fleeting, often overlooked moments in the evolution of their urban environments during periods of rapid growth and transition. Spanning several cities over the past 100 years, these photographers are united in the understanding that what is most familiar in modern life is often what is most impermanent, and its significance may only be felt once it has disappeared.

As wanderers through the city, the photographers in this exhibition utilize varying aesthetic strategies to present an alchemy of past, present, and future within a single image. From Berenice Abbott’s striking architectural images of New York City in the 1930s to Fred Herzog’s early colour scenes of a growing Vancouver on the precipice of modernity in the 1950s, the photographers in Paying Attention each explore the large and small ways our environments are shaped and reshaped over time.

Presented by Equinox Gallery for the Capture Photography Festival, Vancouver.

Geoffrey James, Le Pont Neuf, Paris, 2000

Geoffrey James, The Desert de Retz, 1985

Geoffrey James, Marly-Le-Roi, 1986

Geoffrey James, Maple, Allen Gardens, Toronto, 2004

Geoffrey James, Central Park, Near The Lake, 2007

Geoffrey James, Cactus, Desert Garden, Huntington Library, Pasadena, 2007

Geoffrey James, Desert Garden, Huntington Library, Pasadena, 2008

Geoffrey James, James Coutt’s Garden, Alberta (I), 2006