Five Canadian Photographers Worth Studying — and Exactly What They Shoot

The fastest way to grow as a photographer is to look — really look — at the work of people who are better than you. Canada has produced some genuinely world-class image-makers, and what I find useful is not just admiring the photos but understanding what each person actually shoots and why. Here are five I keep coming back to. I have kept the details to what I can verify, because misattributing someone’s life’s work is a disservice to them.

Edward Burtynsky — The Industrial Sublime

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer known for large-format images of industrial landscapes: open-pit mines, quarries, refineries, tailings ponds, ship-breaking yards. He started in the early 1980s photographing Canada’s unspoiled terrain, then deliberately turned toward the marks industry leaves on the land. Many of his images are shot from high above to convey the scale of what we are doing to the planet. He won a TED Prize in 2005 and a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2016, and he is the subject of the documentary Manufactured Landscapes.

What I take from him: living next to Kitimat’s industrial waterfront, I think about Burtynsky constantly. He proves that industry photographed honestly — at scale, with composition — is not ugly. It is powerful. There is a way to shoot the LNG terminals and the working port of the Northwest that is neither a brochure nor a protest, just truth rendered beautifully.

Paul Nicklen — Polar and Ocean Wildlife

Paul Nicklen is a Canadian photographer, filmmaker, and marine biologist who has spent over two decades documenting the polar regions and the ocean. His awards include the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year and a World Press Photo honour, and in 2019 he became the youngest person inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame. He and his partner Cristina Mittermeier are based out of Vancouver Island.

What I take from him: patience and proximity earned through respect. Nicklen’s work is the gold standard for showing that the most powerful wildlife images come from understanding the animal, not chasing it. That lesson is directly relevant to shooting bears on this coast.

Cristina Mittermeier — Conservation Photography

Cristina Mittermeier is a photographer and marine biologist with around 25 years of work as a conservationist, writer, and image-maker. She has been recognised among the world’s most influential outdoor photographers and was named one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year in 2018. With Nicklen she co-founded SeaLegacy in 2014, an organisation that brings together photographers, scientists, Indigenous leaders, and policymakers to protect the oceans.

What I take from her: that a photograph can be a tool, not just an artefact. Mittermeier built a practice around the idea that images change how people act. For anyone shooting tourism and place in a region as ecologically rich as ours, that is a high bar to aim at.

Dave Brosha — Northern Landscapes and Portraits

Dave Brosha is a Canadian photographer, educator, and writer who built his reputation on the extreme landscapes of the North — he was long based in Yellowknife, one of the best places on the planet for the aurora, before relocating to Prince Edward Island. He is unusual in having won international awards in both landscape and portrait photography, has authored several books including Northern Light, and co-founded the OFFBEAT photographic community.

What I take from him: that you do not have to pick a lane. Brosha shoots sweeping aurora landscapes and intimate human portraits with equal seriousness. As someone who moves between weddings, headshots, and landscapes in a single week, that range is something I aspire to rather than apologise for.

Paul Zizka — Mountain and Adventure

Paul Zizka is an award-winning mountain landscape and adventure photographer based in Banff. His images have appeared in National Geographic, Outside, Canadian Geographic and more, and his client list runs from Canon and Apple to Arc’teryx and MEC. He is the author of multiple books, including the award-winning Canadian Rockies: Rediscovered, and he runs a large photo-education community.

What I take from him: the pursuit of the under-documented. Zizka built a career partly on photographing perspectives nobody else bothered with. That is the entire thesis of shooting the Skeena Valley — most landscape photographers in BC head for the Rockies or the Sea-to-Sky, which means the Northwest is full of frames that have never been done to death.

The Common Thread

None of these photographers got there by buying better gear. They got there by going deep on a subject, returning to it for years, and respecting it. That is the same path open to any of us, including a kid in Terrace with an entry-level camera. If studying these five does one thing, let it be that.

Want to talk shop, or get the Northwest photographed by someone who actually lives here? Get in touch.