Shira Gold: Vancouver’s Most Visionary Fine Art Photog
After quitting dance as a child because she just wasn’t wired to follow the rules, fine art photographer Shira Gold decided to make her own rules and is now one of Canada’s most influential artists.
This rule-defying realization at a young age, compounded with the fact that her mother was one of the first administrators of Arts Umbrella, a visual and performing arts school in Vancouver, contributed to her now passionate artistic path. “The school had become a refuge for me as I found academics challenging. When I first learned photography at the age of 11, I found myself living in the dark room. Being behind a lens really allowed me to engage with other people confidently, and I was able to start to learn the visual expression of my own thoughts and feelings. As a child and teenager, I’d always be sitting and waiting for my mom at the school on Granville Island. The Island is an artisan hub, full of local artists and markets, and I would always look out the window at the artist studios and think how much I would love to be a photographer and have a space there. Then a couple of years ago I got a call that one of these studios that I used to stare at so longingly across from Arts Umbrella was available.”
Years after her mother and muse, Melanie Gold, passed away in 2003, Shira created Good Grief, a visual articulation of the profound personal transformations she went through during that time. When Gold, a former fashion designer, took her camera out again following her mother’s passing, she never stopped snapping things that gave meaning to her visions. “My mom was a huge formative force for me as a child. She lived and breathed the art world.”
When it comes to describing her work, Shira explains that she is more interested in capturing the feelings that she is experiencing in the moment rather than trying to meet the moment. “I do this using visual metaphors. Ever since I was a teenager and even as a child I was fascinated with overlooked objects and how things we just pass by might carry meaning, become visually opulent when seen through new eyes. Whether I’m using a landscape or falling petals, or a found vase or disposable masks, it’s the same process. Minimalism has been a consistent theme which has been honed and refined as I continue to develop my practice. I have a busy mind, and when I find something within my frame it’s one of the few moments when I can block everything out and focus just on the intention.”
The severity and instability of the pandemic led Gold to create two independent series of poignant photographs which related to what we have all gone through these past few years. In response
to all the regulations imposed on society during the start of Covid, By a Thread deconstructs the feelings that arise when facing both the tightening and loosening of rules. It reflects humanity’s need for order in the face of absolute disorder and chaos, and the sense of uncertainty we feel as we navigate those conflicting impulses within ourselves as well as our society. Shira correlated this to often maligned and misunderstood moths, which evoke a sense of rebirth and regeneration, with an innate pull towards liberation through their symbolic and transformative beauty. She compares how we too were forced to leave our cocooned worlds after being sequestered for long periods of time, and how we are drawn to the light of promise as we reemerge and reimagine our lives. “By a Thread is about how we choose to come into the light after such a divisive experience. In constructing the series, I had to deconstruct my feelings and consider how to find a new order in the midst of disorder.” The series concluded in synchronicity with the pandemic restrictions easing away and expresses a shared experience through visual metaphor. By A Thread was conceived following a moth outbreak that besieged Vancouver’s lower mainland. Semi-transparent moths are delicately suspended while taut, artificial threads delineate rules and safety orders, a gesture toward our tenuous relationship with the ever more uncertain future. “I was hiking and stumbled upon thousands and thousands of moths covering the lake like lace. I was really taken by the experience and inspired to create what I felt at that time. I consider myself to be an emotional person and love being able to capture what I feel and share it with others.”
Shira’s second pandemic body of work, Bare Essentials, is a composite portrait series of everyday items including tissues, paper towels and toilet paper which were treasured and then disposed of during the early days of the pandemic. “These works are an interrogation or meditation on our consumer behavior and the supply chain in those early days. I tried not to order online and hoard items, preferring to just buy things as we ran out of them, however the search for essentials became more challenging as they became quite elusive in Vancouver. When online deliveries arrived, my children and I were shocked to find even the non-breakable items wrapped up in bubble wrap. I realized that I was contributing to the problem of consumerism and kept the bubble wrap as a memory of the moment and to incorporate it into my work.”
Getting through the pandemic herself involved being outdoors a lot and going for hikes with her family. “I adore travel, and we really just stayed close to our home and explored our province. My relationships are deeply important to me, and I was deeply grateful to remain connected virtually with friends as much as I could. My friendships, music and art are like therapy for me. Concerts are one of my favorite things to photograph for fun. I was missing going to shows terribly and am looking forward to seeing live music again.”
Earlier on in her career, Shira was focused on photo-based mixed media, but was unsure that her message was communicated effectively. She continues to experiment with different mediums and takes a self-described “messy mad scientist” approach to create the installations that become her composite photographs. “I put multiple images together to present the message and create the overall effect I’m looking for. I stage those bits and frames, sometimes well over 20 layers deep, and the compositions evolve to develop a painterly quality to them.”
Shira is known for presenting her work as contemporary prints, mounted and laminated so they can be hung without glass. This visionary and versatile photographer was also extremely honored to have one of her photographs featured on the cover of her father’s book called Two Pieces of Cloth, which is about his parents’ fight for survival during the Holocaust. “My grandparents were survivors and came to Canada with next to nothing. Through hard work and determination, they really built a new life for themselves.”
Currently, this star photographer, who has been recognized through many different international awards organizations, including The Fine Art Photo Awards, LensCulture Art Photography Awards and others, splits her time between her public and home-based studios. She will be spreading her creativity – and unique perspective – with an upcoming series focused on neural diversity. Having been diagnosed with ADHD in her mid-30s, Shira has wanted to explore that topic for some time. She is also excited to have pieces featured in FotoNostrum gallery in Barcelona in the fall.
With artists being forced to find new ways to showcase their creativity following the hardships of the last few years, Shira is in awe of the art community. “I am amazed at how, in these most challenging times, seemingly everyone is finding the beauty in the environment around us. In the photography community, this creativity has been continuous, despite all the pain and sadness and loss, and there have been many great stories to come out of it.”
Finding her own ways of creating art during these times resonates with us perhaps most of all because of the vulnerability and emotion she evokes in each of her very personal pieces.
