Untitled (Christmas Cards)

Sited on two billboards on Davie St, between Bute St and Jervis St, Vancouver.

Deploying the visual tropes that make up stock photography, Buck Ellison’s meticulously staged images mimic and draw attention to the pervasive White privilege that has become part of the North American visual vernacular. While at first glance the images on these billboards appear to be ordinary family photos, upon closer examination the overly perfect nature of the people therein, their clothing, and the setting reveals the photograph to be constructed – a work of fiction employing actors rather than kin. In these works, Ellison references the tradition of family portraiture that goes back centuries, and continues in contemporary holiday cards in which professional photographers are hired to snap the “perfect family photo.” In creating these works, the artist makes coded reference to affluence in contemporary society and the ways in which photography is used to propagate and circulate those standards and norms. The artist states:

I see portraits as tied to power, marriage, and the merging of family assets from the get-go. My aim is to upend that. The individuals in my family portrait are not related, they met hours before the shoot, and the final image is a composite of multiple shots. I find it unsettling how commonplace this technique is in advertising – a tool used to construct the illusion of perfect families, the very ones that leave us feeling inadequate. 

The images are especially poignant when writ large and presented on sites typically used for advertising. By reproducing and magnifying both Whiteness and wealth, Ellison asks the viewer to look in the mirror and interrogate our own, sometimes subconscious aspirations.

A multi-site project on two billboards on Davie St, Vancouver, and on four billboards along Dupont St, Toronto.

Presented in partnership with CONTACT Photography Festival.