Louise Francis-Smith was born and raised in New Zealand. She traveled to Canada in the 1970’s and after spending 2 years at the Banff Centre, made Vancouver her home. Moving to Strathcona in 1980, she focused her lens here, on Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside. Her photographs reflect and uncover layers of physical, social, political, and economic undercurrents. Always interested in the human condition, drawn to the landscape and how we live in it, she is attracted to those photographers who were concerned with the social fabric and looking below the surface.
As a child she remembers looking at photographic books that her father produced, and like him, she began to photograph early the landscape of the rural area she lived in.
Louise spent 2 years at the Banff Centre, 2 years at the Vancouver School of Art and a year at Emily Carr. She has exhibited at the Chinese Cultural Museum, Vancouver Museum, Gam Gallery, and other venues.
“I feel fortunate in my life, able to pursue, camera as companion, capturing the ongoing moments of life with all its beauty, difficulties, wonder and sadness”.
