PERMANENT COLLECTION

LINCOLN CLARKES

NATIONALITY: Canadian

DATES: b. 1957

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Toronto in 1957, Lincoln Clarkes moved to Vancouver, BC, in 1979. He was originally a painter who encountered difficulties with his spray bomb graffiti paintings on walls and construction boards throughout downtown Vancouver. He enrolled at Emily Carr University of Art and Design to study painting but dropped out to pursue photography. Clarkes taught himself photography and began a career in fashion and portraiture, working in both Paris and London, as well as working on magazine and newspaper assignments across North America.

In 1996 he began working on a series of photographs that highlight the plight of female drug addicts living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The resultant series, Heroines, was first exhibited in 1998 at the Helen Pitt Gallery in Vancouver, and was subsequently turned into a book and an award-winning documentary film. Clarkes followed the success of Heroines with another series of photographs, Views, which also spawned a book and a music CD. His most recent series is called Cyclists, where Clarkes photographed 150 men and women riding bicycles in Toronto, which addressed the increase in cyclists in the city.

Lincoln Clarkes is still an active member of the artistic community. What attracts people to Clarkes’ work is the focus on the things we would overlook every day. Clarkes takes the time to listen hard and closely watch his environment and that shows in his photographs. Clarkes’ work has received mixed reactions but that is what makes his work exciting. He enjoys bringing to light controversial issues and some of the public can relate to his work, morally and ethically, on every level. His aesthetic is warm, not harsh, and finds the comfort in alternative worlds. He has shown his work in solo exhibitions in Vancouver, Seattle, and Toronto. Previously published photography books include: Heroines, 2002 (Anvil Press), Views, 2006 (Universal/Northern Electric). Feature documentaries on Clarkes include Heroines (Bravo 2001) and Snapshots (Knowledge Network 2011). He currently divides his time between British Columbia, Ontario, and England.