Artist Statement

“The grey warm evening of August had descended upon the city and a mild, warm air, a memory of summer circulated in the streets. Like illuminated pearls the lamps shone from the summits of their tall poles upon the living texture below which, changing shape and hue unceasingly, sent up into the warm grey evening air an unchanging unceasing murmur.” Excerpt from “Two Gallants” by James Joyce.

Inspired by Irish novelist James Joyce’s short story, Stephen Brookbank explores after-dark and before dawn urban, suburban and industrial environments. Stephen’s streetscape and environmental portraits in home, work and play settings look to document the the resilience of people in a challenging period in human history. He says, “I’m interested in creating work that supposes allegories representing flexibility and adaptive strength.” One of Stephen’s key influences is the New Topographic movement of the 1070s, in which photographers worked to identify a critical view of the state of America. “I am interested in looking at the everyday urban and suburban landscape with a sense of awe, coloured with the mixed-up lighting situations from available light sources”, says Brookbank. “This work is intended as a document of our time.” Excerpt from PhotoEd Magazine by Joshua Cameron.

Biography

I lived and worked in Toronto, Hamilton and Vancouver for many years before returning to Halifax in 2017 where I was born and raised. I work at NSCAD University and continue my active photography practice. My work has been exhibited widely. Typically, my work takes focus on contemporary social and economic uncertainty, adopting banal images of North America’s urban landscape as raw material for my visual record.  The exchange between life and work is a primary concern in which my intention is to further extend the explorations of early American documentary photographers into what the present world will look like as a past era. For my most recent completed series entitled, “Water.Rock.Time.” I explored the North Atlantic Ocean reconnecting myself to the coastal environment. Currently, I am working on a collaborative series of work with the Nova Scotian novelist/ short story writer, Ian Colford.