A crowd gathers at the Crossgrain Photographic Society's show at Martin Batchelor Gallery. Photo © by Hailey Finnigan, VibrantVictoria.ca.

The Crossgrain Photographic Society’s show at The Martin Batchelor Gallery opened to a receptive audience on Saturday, September 26, with displays of recent work by its eight talented members. The gallery’s excellent lighting, huge windows and a sparkly chandelier (I’m a sucker for sparkle) complimented the exhibit whose artists are all members of Xchanges, a local artist run studio cooperative and gallery, where the work on display was produced. Many of the show’s photos were smaller in size and all were black and white. Landscapes and still lives were the popular subjects on display.

One of the contributors, Thomas Koivukangas, is one of my old friends. I asked him about his captivating panoramic photos of downtown Victoria intersections and he explained to me his process, which involved scouting out suitable intersections one week before the show. He devised a plan to visit each intersection at four o’clock in the afternoon, each day, and document the location by taking four consecutive photos capturing approximately twenty seconds in time.

Photo © by Hailey Finnigan, VibrantVictoria.ca.

Not surprisingly, Thomas attracted a lot of attention from the people he recorded on film, day after day. “They thought I was a cop,” he chuckled. Well no wonder, there is an awesome surveillance camera quality to the photos.  Why black and white, I asked. “I like it,” he said. “It’s traditional.” I’m glad he chose it, because it reinforces the surveillance camera feel.

Promptly at nine the gallery began closing, which was a shame because I wasn’t the only one who wanted to stay late. After congratulating Thomas on an excellent opening he told me that he wanted to print off more of the photos he took at the intersections. I’m happy to hear it, and look forward to seeing more of the Crossgrain Photographic Society’s work in the future.

Hailey Finnigan is the author of phART, a Victoria-based arts blog.

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