Within Greg Girard’s amazing body of work we are especially fascinated by his early photographs, compiled under the name „In the Near Distance“.
The wonderful book (84 pp., Illustrated thoughout, 8×11) was published in 2010 by Kominek Books Berlin.
„In the Near Distance 1973-86 is the document of Greg Girard’s early wanderings, the adolescent search for prospects and aims: nocturnal street sceneries, portraits of “sailors and friends”, images of creatures of the night and hotel rooms. In addition to black-and-white-materials Girard mainly used color slides during those years – and thus adds a new and important body of work to the color photography of the seventies. Consciously Girard uses the light of neon lamps and electric bulbs, explores the very particular, slightly shifted color temperatures of the slides and approaches a creative stylistic device that he brings to perfection in his work “Phantom Shanghai”, published in 2007. Inspired by the aesthetics of seventies movies, the literature of Peter Handke and by Asian culture, Girard very early finds an individual imagery, in which he strikingly captures his visual impressions, his emotions, as well as the atmosphere of the different places and stations of his journeys.“
(Publisher’s description)
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Greg Girard is a Canadian photographer (b. 1955) who has spent much of his career in Asia, first visiting Hong Kong in 1974, and later living in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. He became a professional photographer in 1987, based first in Hong Kong and later in Shanghai. His work to date has examined the social and physical transformations taking place throughout the region.
His work is represented by Monte Clark Gallery (Vancouver/Toronto). He works on assignment for publications such as National Geographic Magazine and continues to pursue long-term book length projects.
For more of Greg’s work please visit
→ www.greggirard.com
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Update / February 2012:
Tom Griggs from the wonderful fototazo recently interviewed Greg Girard – please read on here.
