ABOUT

Tinted with neon and forged in the bowels of the Canadian backwoods, Eddie Phin's photography strips things down to the source. An explorer at heart, Phin's photography has taken him worldwide, from the glowing Montreal Main to the borderlands of war. His work plays on the tension between people and their environments. Playful and sardonic, he frames characters dwarfed by the enormity of settings defiled by ironic slogans and environments. The world's largeness is so overwhelming that it's rendered invisible to his subjects but comes alive through Phin's careful gaze.

Phin's style is grassroots, inspired by icons of the past. His shots reflect a desire to be a part of the action and a sense of kinship with his subjects. As his affection for neon light feeds his fascination for faded glamour, we see the intersection between past and present as different eras seem to collapse into one. Phin's photography captures loneliness in feeling out of step with the rest of society. His subjects often feel distant, as if they don’t quite belong. Phin’s bare bones and instinctual photography captures a spirit of spontaneity increasingly lost in contemporary art practices and, with it, a deep sense of alienation emblematic of modern life.

Eddie Phin's cowboy attitude, a willingness to follow the wind toward inspiration, will likely carry him far. Pulled to the many corners of the world, Phin has never let borders limit his passion. His photography has become a catalogue of experiences from across the Western world, the varying textures of different cities, the passions of technicolour strips and the shared melancholia of navigating this lonely life.

- Justine Peres Smith is a film critic and screenwriter. Her work has previously been published on Roger Ebert, Little White Lies, Cult MTL, and the National Post among others.