This April, the West Vancouver Art Museum presents The Decisive Moment: Ema Peter. The show features works by architectural photojournalist Ema Peter, who has documented some of the most significant contemporary buildings in West Vancouver, the Lower Mainland, and around the globe for the past 15 years.
Peter holds a master’s degree in art and applied photography from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria (2000). Her images have been featured in publications, such as Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Wallpaper, Dwell, Wired, and The New York Times.
Born in Bulgaria, Peter spent her youth on set with her father who worked as a cameraman for major Bulgarian film productions. After becoming a presenter for Bulgarian TV, Peter eventually left Bulgaria to pursue an internship in photojournalism at the Magnum photo agency in Paris.
Her visits to the Corbusier Villa La Roche building sparked her love of modern architecture. Inspired by its clean lines and Corbusier’s visionary thinking, she drew from her training in photojournalism to document the architectural world around her.
Peter has received numerous awards, including the 2018 Canadian Architect Inaugural Photo Award of Excellence, the 2022 Dezeen Architectural Photograph of the Year Public Vote, Architizer’s 2022 award for Architecture + Photography + Video, as well as the 2020 and 2022 Createur Design Best Photography Awards.
Curated by Alison Powell, the exhibition will run from April 12 to June 3, 2023. This exhibition is part of the 2023 Capture Photography Festival Selected Exhibition Program.