this is a place
Stephen Attong, Tom Hsu, Brendan Georgo Ko, Eleni Nikoletsos, and Gloria Wong
April 18 - May 18, 2025
Curated by Avalon Mott
Generously supported by Fotobox
Presented as part of the CONTACT Photography Festival
this is a place. This place is a rectangular shaped room with white walls and low ceilings, where 47 photographs are adhered to the wall. These photos were captured through the lens’ of Stephen Attong, Tom Hsu, Brendan George Ko, Eleni Nikoletsos and Gloria Wong as they examined a place that they found themselves in, and returned to, and reflected within.
This place was Greece, where lineage has been established for a span of time that transcends documentation. A pallet of light and tone that becomes synonymous with family.
This place was Toronto. Spanning the varied and far reaching neighbourhoods, articulating their individual sensibilities. Documentation as wayfinding in a new city.
This place was Honcho, a queer music festival where community and expression and joy are paramount pillars. An act of resistance amongst the American bible belt.
This palace was home. A family home where a new life in Canada was forged and fostered after immigrating from Hong Kong. Signifiers of identity are ever present.
This place was a desert that has become a source for unfulfilled nostalgia. A constant reminder of time, as one grows older the sense of the spirit of the desert remains.
This place was Toronto. Spanning the varied and far reaching neighbourhoods, articulating their individual sensibilities. Documentation as wayfinding in a new city.
This place was Honcho, a queer music festival where community and expression and joy are paramount pillars. An act of resistance amongst the American bible belt.
This palace was home. A family home where a new life in Canada was forged and fostered after immigrating from Hong Kong. Signifiers of identity are ever present.
This place was a desert that has become a source for unfulfilled nostalgia. A constant reminder of time, as one grows older the sense of the spirit of the desert remains.
As you occupy this place, you are mirrored back to yourself in reflected glimmers. Your curiosity, your familiarity with a memory of your own that feels like the image that you’re looking at, your desire to uncover the small details and connections in the images along the walls. The photographer’s varied yet thoughtful examinations of place are also connected through these reflections, highlighting that at its core this place is ephemeral. This is a place captured as a static space through the lens of a camera, but ever fleeting to the naked eye.
-Avalon Mott
Documentation by Philip Leonard Ocampo.
