Owen Murray is a Canadian photographer based in Edmonton, Alberta, specializing in architecture, archaeology, and cultural heritage. Influenced by the photojournalism of Henri-Cartier Bresson and Sebastião Salgado, his many projects have taken him across the world, from the Northwest Territories to the slums of India and backroads of rural Japan, and across Central Asia and the Middle East. He has been a member of archaeological teams for over a decade, documenting cultural heritage sites, temples, and monuments in Turkmenistan, Oman, Cameroon, and Egypt for a variety of university and research institutes.
His unmistakable street style expresses his fascination for archaeology and anthropology. He relies upon the art of timing and consciousness—little prayers, offerings both to, and of, a moment—to explore human life as a process and expression of time entwined in the formation of landscape. He strives to capture images that facilitate a shift in realities and relate the cultural narrative of different places, times, people, and experiences. He says: “My images hint at an underlying presence that unites these narratives into one. They stand as a testament to multi-faceted experiences of human identity expressed in a constantly unfurling narrative.”
Murray has a Bachelor of Design in Visual Communications from the Alberta College for Art and Design (ACAD), Calgary. He runs a small photography business that spans commercial, editorial, and research interests, and is a member of the design faculty at the Edmonton Digital Arts College. His work in the local arts community includes involvement with the Art Gallery of Alberta, Gallery@501, Latitude 53, and the Society of Northern Alberta Printmakers (SNAP).