TORONTO.- Harbourfront Centre presents the eight emerging Canadian photographers who have been commissioned to take part in the unique exhibition Beyond Imaginings: Eight artists encounter Ontario's Greenbelt. From June 18, 2010 through June 2011, the photographs of Beyond Imaginings occupy Canada’s largest outdoor photography exhibition gallery, located at Harbourfront Centre on its 10-acre central waterfront Toronto site, one of the most visited public sites in all of Canada. Beyond Imaginings is free and open to all ages.

The eight artists selected to participate in the exhibition are Becky Comber, Keesic Douglas, Martie Giefert, Mark Kasumovic, Rob MacInnis, Erin Riley, Meera Margaret Singh, and Garett Walker.

A total of 72 large scale photographs by the eight artists provide glimpses of various facets of this environmentally protected region, one of the largest of its type in the world. Each photographer explores one of three aspects through their work: Natural Beauty, Working the Land and People of the Greenbelt.

“The eight artists have been at work travelling throughout the Greenbelt, taking photographs which capture noteworthy aspects of this vast protected region,” said exhibition curator Patrick Macaulay, Harbourfront Centre’s Head of Visual Arts. “The process of selecting images and creating the final exhibition provides a fascinating behind the scenes look into the artists’ experiences, and is part of the exclusive online content we are sharing on Harbourfront Centre’s UPFRONT blog.”

Commissioned and curated by Harbourfront Centre, this unprecedented exhibition is generously supported by Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation. “This unique exhibition provides visitors to downtown Toronto a window — or 72 of them — into the beauty, wonder and complexity of Ontario’s Greenbelt,” said Susan Murray, Director of Communications for the Greenbelt Foundation. “And it provides an opportunity to those who can’t make it to experience the exhibit via online tools. There’s something here for everyone.”

BECKY COMBER
Becky Comber grew up in rural Grey County, Ont., where she nourished both a love for the outdoors and a creative passion for making pictures. After completing Ryerson University’s Image Arts program, she traveled west and stayed there for three years living in a wilderness hostel, walking and photographing the mountains of Alberta and B.C. In 2008, she felt a calling to return to her home to pursue her career in image making. She now lives and works in rural Grey County and juggles creative projects with developing a homestead. Her work has been featured in contemporary Toronto galleries, and has been exhibited internationally. She has been published in various Canadian magazines and the Magenta Foundation’s contemporary photographic compilations Carte Blanch and Flash Forward.

KEESIC DOUGLAS
Keesic Douglas is an Ojibway artist from the Mnjikaning First Nation in central Ontario. He specializes in the mediums of photography and video. His work has been exhibited across Canada and the U.S. Douglas focuses on issues surrounding his Native heritage in his photo and video work. His video The Vanishing Trace won Best Short Documentary at the 2007 imagineNATIVE Film Festival in Toronto. His video War Pony was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2009. He is currently completing his MFA at UBC.

MARTIE GIEFERT
Martie Giefert spent his early years in Hillsburgh, a small town near Guelph, Ont., before moving north to Orillia, Ont., as a teenager. After studying and working as a graphic designer he earned his BFA in Photography at NSCAD University in Halifax, N.S. As an artist his interests include architecture, history, memory, and culture. His work has been exhibited in and around Toronto, Halifax and the U.S. Giefert currently lives and works in Toronto.

MARK KASUMOVIC
Mark Kasumovic is a Toronto-based photographer interested in urban environments as well as issues surrounding the natural landscape and its modern representations. Upon completing his BFA at Ryerson University, he was selected as the regional winner by the Bank of Montreal’s Art 1st Competition, The Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward: Emerging Photographers competition, and was awarded Best in Show of his graduating class exhibition. His work has been exhibited galleries throughout Toronto, including The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Gallery 1313 and the Edward Day Gallery – and is beginning to find its way to an international audience.

ROB MACINNIS
Rob MacInnis received a BFA in Photography from NSCAD University, N.S., in 2005. He was selected for Magenta Publishing’s Emerging Photographers 2006, 2007 and 2009 publications, The Casey House’s Art With Heart and featured in the Contact Photography Festival 2007, 2008 and 2009. His work was featured in a Bravo documentary series called Snapshot and is collected by the Canadian Association of University Teachers, The Nimoy Family Foundation, Citibank, and the Museum of Fine Art, Houston. MacInnis has been published in the Globe and Mail and The New York Times, and has presented at Art Basel, ScopeNY, PhotoLA and the Toronto International Art Fair and has received grants from ARTSNB and a commission from The Edmonton Arts Council. He currently resides in Moncton, N.B.

ERIN RILEY
Erin Riley is a photographer based in Toronto where she has worked as an editorial photographer with her work appearing in many national newspapers and magazines. Recently she was awarded a Scotiabank Scholarship to attend the Magnum workshop with photographer David Allen Harvey. During the spring of 2009 she travelled to the high arctic with the Canadian military as one of five civilian artists chosen to participate in the Canadian Forces Artists Program. She continues to explore her interest in achieving a balance between documentary and art.

MEERA MARGARET SINGH
Meera Margaret Singh is a visual artist based in Toronto, Ont. She holds a BA in Anthropology (1997), a BFA in Photography (2004) from the University of Manitoba and MFA (2008) from Concordia University. Singh has been the recipient of several residencies and awards, including a Canada Council for the Arts production/creation grant (2009). She has been selected to participate in a residency at the Banff Centre, as the McCain Artist-in-Residence at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, as the summer resident at the Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada in Kamloops, B.C., as a scholarship winner participating in the Magnum Workshop with international photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti, and as a selected participant in an international residency with renowned contemporary German photographer Thomas Struth at the Atlantic Centre for the Arts in Florida. Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions and festivals and is held in private and public collections locally and internationally. She is currently an instructor in the Photography department at the Ontario College of Art and Design.

GARETT WALKER
Having completed his BFA in Photography from Ryerson University, Garett Walker has been traveling across Canada documenting the diverse landscapes and regional cultural heritage. He is a recipient of many private and public artistic development grants which help to fund his ongoing work. He is an active participant in the Toronto arts community and his work is collected by various private collectors and public institutions in Canada. Walker lives and works in Toronto.

HARBOURFRONT CENTRE
Harbourfront Centre is an innovative, non-profit cultural organization which provides internationally renowned programming in the arts, culture, education and recreation, all within a collection of distinctive venues on the 10-acre site it operates in the heart of Toronto's downtown waterfront.