Colin Boyd Shafer
Kitchener, ON, Canada
Colin Boyd Shafer (b. 1983) is a Canadian documentary photographer born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. His personal projects primarily focus on issues connected to diversity, migration and belonging.
Shafer's recent portrait projects include Interlove (2015-16) which tells Canadian interfaith love stories and Cosmopolis Toronto (2013-14), a project featuring someone from every country of the world who now calls Toronto home. This project was recently published as a limited edition book, presented on at TEDxToronto (2014), and is the focus of an upcoming film by the National Film Board of Canada.
Shafer's work has been featured widely in the media, including National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, The New Internationalist, Salon, CNN, BBC News, Monocle, 6Mois, Foto8, F-Stop Magazine and CBC National News channels.
Shafer holds an MSc in the Political Economy of Violence Conflict and Development from the UK's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and also has University degrees in Education, Environmental Science and Psychology. While based in Malaysia from 2008 to 2012, Shafer founded the ongoing Everyone has Hope Project wherein Malaysian college students teach photography to Burmese refugee youth.
Shafer is currently living in Sofia, Bulgaria and working on a number of photography projects - including a book with Figure1 Publishing that will feature prominent Canadians for the country's 150th anniversary.
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Portrait of an Uprising (2013)
Colin Boyd Shafer
Gezi Park, Istanbul, Turkey
The people had set up a community garden, a place to get food, and a medical area. Donations were coming in to keep the camp alive, even celebrities were visiting to show their support. It wasn’t just young radicals; there was a real mix of ages. It was a strange combination really: vegetarians, secularists, communists, artists, feminists, environmentalists, and everything in between – a combination that interestingly seemed to mesh well. Those first days in Gezi Park and Taksim square were magical, definitely the largest street party I have been to – where public space was truly public. I wandered around the park and square, talking to people and taking portraits of them as they were; reading a book, doing yoga, smoking a cigarette etc. It was peaceful. However, there was a sense, given what they were up against that it wouldn’t last for long.
Cosmopolis Toronto (2013-14)
Colin Boyd Shafer
Nadia (born in Bangladesh) riding the subway in Toronto, Ontario |
Cosmopolis Toronto is a documentary portrait series featuring someone from every country of the world who has migrated to Toronto, Canada and now calls the city home.