5 Photographers May 10, 2012

Five accomplished and award winning Canadian artists – Peter Adamson, Bret Culp, Peter Kraiker, John Long and Mira Zdjelar – specialize in the art of photography and showcase very different and unique styles. ‘5 Photographers’ (photography and digital art group exhibit) opens with a public reception on Thursday, May 10 (6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.) and runs to May 26, 2012 at Leonardo Galleries in Yorkville.
Toronto’s Peter Adamson states, “My current work ranges from the abstract and the interplay of line, shape, form and colour, to the landscape often created with composite images combined for effect. While the subjects are secondary and the aesthetics primary, my ulterior motive is to encourage the viewer to dream of summer.”
Adamson works extensively in film and digital media and won first prize at Ontario’s Neilson Park Creative Centre juried art show, ‘Impact 2009’). He studied photography at Ryerson University and is a frequent participant in the CONTACT Photography Festival.
Gemini award winner Bret Culp explains his black and white collection (taken in Ireland and Italy), “These are photographs of matter governed by time (such as the mythic landscape surrounding the 6th century Christian monastery, perched 700 feet atop Skellig Michael Island), chosen to illustrate the relentless determination of nature, the eternal cycle of creation out of destruction.”
Toronto’s Bret Culp is a director and visual effects supervisor for more than 50 feature films and television shows including Resident Evil: Apocalypse, IMAX: Hubble 3D, Camelot and four seasons of The Tudors (winning two Best Visual Effects Gemini Awards). Culp is the recipient of numerous awards and his work is featured in many galleries in North America and abroad.
Peter Kraiker, a Canadian sports photographer and journalist, has a talent for quick reflexes in capturing an image, coupled with an intuitive sense for composition and lighting. When not covering high-speed events, he turns his lens to more contemplative subjects.
For this exhibit, Kraiker’s photographs display a stark glimpse into the contrasts and subtlety of New Zealand. In a set of paired images titled Journey to the Edge (part of a larger body of work), he only hints at what these islands seductively reveal, without disclosing many of their secrets.
Toronto photography pioneer and lecturer John Long captivates with his latest exhibition using medium format film with stereo 3D photography. His work, featured in PhotoEd Magazine, possesses sharpness and depth through the use of his hyper-realistic formatting and the result, he says, is the “closest link to reality.”
Long’s work (his vast panoramas are stunning and exemplify great diversity; while his social images or portraits of people, animals and exotic cars display a social dialogue) is a synthesis of the revolutionary foundations of still photography, with continuing evolution to both how the medium is produced and what current audiences accept.
Canadian photographer Mira Zdjelar’s ongoing project ‘Urban Connections’ shows her fascination with global cities and their structures, which appear similar, almost tangibly reminiscent and yet different at the same time.
Zdjelar’s collection is of urban fragments taken in silent protest, showing invisible ties that bind cities, people and lives, and bringing them closer to each other towards a richer reality. She was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and is presently living in Paris, France.

Official Website: http://www.leonardogalleries.com