'You Belong in Vancouver' Vancouver Tourism

As a queer identified photographer it was emotional and empowering to be involved in a project that honours my LGBTQ community.
I am proud to have been chosen as the photographer to create portraits for Vancouver Tourism's 'You Belong in Vancouver' LGBTQ campaign.
It was two full days of photography and video with an incredible team who deeply cared about telling these individuals stories with respect and dignity.

DJ O Show is a dynamic speaker and this video of her describing her heritage and what music means to her is powerful.

Danny Ramadan is an inspiring individual who has overcome great hardship to start a new life in Vancouver, Canada.

Videography:  Barbershop Films
Makeup & Hair:  Tasha Vu
Photography:  Belle Ancell
Digi-Tech:  Maylies Lang

Take Time for Your Mind

Vancouver's Health Initiative for Men is working to make information about Gay men's mental health accessible with their 'Take Time for Your Mind' online resource.
Photographing this project was technically challenging AND fun, consisting of a 10 hour shoot day at 2 locations with 6 wonderful models.

WeARTS Profile

I'm a Mount Pleasant girl but I spend a lot of time in Vancouver's West End, so I was so excited when WeARTS (West End ARTS) contacted me to be featured in the inaugural issue of their magazine.
My friend Annie Reid wrote the article and she asked me some thought provoking questions.
It was a positive process for me as it forced me to dig deep about who, what and why in regards to my artistic practice.

XTRA: The Final Issue Community Leaders Portrait

On Wednesday, February 11th the last print issue of Xtra Vancouver was published.
I am so grateful to Editor Robin Perelle and Xtra for taking a chance on an emerging photographer with no editorial shooting experience.
The day Robin asked me into her office to invite me to shoot for Xtra I said yes, but I was terrified!! So terrified of failing that I turned down my first cover shoot with them. But I didn’t turn down the next one.
It was a shoot with the Little Sisters Bookstore family for their 30th Anniversary story.
I will always have that wonderful memory of working with them and with Jim Deva before his tragic death.
I will have many wonderful memories from the shoots I did, the fabulous people I was privileged to photograph, and the pride I felt at seeing my he{art} work in print on the newsstands.
Thank you Xtra for believing in me. Thank you for honouring me with the task of photographing this incredible group of community leaders for your last print issue.

Read the full story HERE about the individuals honoured in this commemorative portrait.

Read the full story HERE about the individuals honoured in this commemorative portrait.

Behind the scenes of the Xtrafinal print edition photo shoot with Vancouver LGBT community leaders. Video by: Tony James dreamfixation@gmail.com

Xtra Vancouver cover #6 !!

This one is dear to my heart. It's not often you see beautiful portraits of elders on the COVER of my community newspaper.
Colin Tilney is the Elton John of the harpsichordist musical world.

Xtra Vancouver cover #5 !!

These folks from playwright Dave Deveau's new play 'The Lowest Common Denominator' were such fun. I wish I had more than 20 minutes with them to create these images for Xtra Vancouver. We could have gotten into some trouble!!

Shawn Macdonald (bearded), Dallas Sauer (brown t-shirt), Deborah Williams (striped shirt).