Toronto photojournalist’s exhibit “Home” brings people, the planet together

By Jaime Pulfer

The Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival is the largest festival of its kind globally, with over 250 exhibitions this month in the GTA.

One of those exhibits features work by Toronto photojournalist Neil Ever Osborne, who is represented by the National Geographic Image Collection.

His images are sparking a much bigger discussion about the state of the planet and climate change.

Bringing people and this planet together in a familiar place, the exhibit, called “Home” contains a chilling title piece — an elephant’s tail in Africa.

“The tail’s been taken away from a live animal,” Osborne explained.

“I was on this anti-poaching unit (and) I came across a room that had some confiscated animal parts.”

He’s also using augmented reality to give viewers a behind the scenes experience of these images.

“I can take people into the field where I was tracking down an elephant,” he said.

Osborne has been traveling the world and he hopes with his work, he will be able to show us what’s really happening.

“Protecting the environment, conservation sustainability — these are clunky words. They’re also losing their meanings,” he said.

“We’ve got to re-frame the conversation and if art can be a way to do that then this is a really exciting place to be.”

The exhibit opens on Saturday at the Berenson Gallery on Avenue Road.

Listen to the complete interview with Neil Ever Osborne below.

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