This very special gallery will honour the work of world-renowned photographers who are committed to their craft and to the process of photography.
This gallery will also honour the young man for whom it is named.
This gallery will also honour the young man for whom it is named.
Information
- Location:
- Toronto, ON, M4G 1Y9
- Phone:
- 416.406.3131
- Mon - Fri:
- 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Sat:
- 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Photos
2 albumsSee All
Ryan Pyle's Opening Talk & Reception August 6th, 2009Created about 5 months ago
DEG Exhibits 2008-2009Created about 5 months ago
Events
2 past eventsSee All
- Chinese Turkistan
Dylan Ellis Gallery
Thursday, August 6 at 6:30pm - "Chinese Turkistan" by documen...
Dylan Ellis Gallery
Thursday, August 6 at 6:30pm
Dylan Ellis Gallery Ryan Pyle's show opened to a packed house. He delivered a great talk; afterwards, wine was sipped while prints were enjoyed and discussed. A perfect evening and a great launch for the show.
Dylan Ellis Gallery Ryan Pyle's show, Chinese Turkistan: The Vanishing Silkroad, opened to a packed house! The show will be up until September 25, 2009.
Dylan Ellis Gallery Looking forward to the opening of Chinese Turkistan, next Thursday, August 6th @ 6:30PM!
Time:6:30PM Thursday, August 6th
Location:Dylan Ellis Gallery
Dylan Ellis Gallery
Born in 1978 in Toronto, Canada, Ryan Pyle spent his early years close to home. After obtaining a degree in International Politics from the University of Toronto in 2001, Ryan realized a life long dream and traveled to China on an exploratory mission. In 2002 Ryan moved to China permanently and began documenting China ...visually.
In 2005, Ryan Pyle became a regular contributor to the New York Times covering China, where he documented issues such as rural healthcare, illegal land seizures, bird flu and pollution. More recently he has branched out in to mostly magazine work expanding his portfolio to include the Time, Newsweek, Outside Magazine, Sunday Times Magazine, Fortune and Der Spiegel. Ryan Pyle is based in Shanghai, China.
Ryan is a reportage style photographer, working almost exclusively in 35mm format range finder cameras. His work drifts between journalism and fine art as he roams through China shedding light on the country and its diverse people.
Most recently, it has been the people of China’s western Xinjiang province that have been the primary focus of Ryan’s work, and it was in 2006 that he decided to begin on long-term documentation of this mysterious and remote part of the world.
Formerly known as Chinese Turkistan, this vast expanse of deserts and mountains has seemingly always been at a crossroads between cultures and time. For centuries criminals, holy men, and traders tramped across the region; and it was out of this tradition that the Silk Road was established.
Surrounded on three sides by some of the highest mountain ranges in the world, with the Gobi desert blocking the forth, Chinese Turkistan is one of the most isolated places on earth.
As his project has progressed, Ryan has begun to take a closer look at life in this region. Drawn by its vast size, colorful minorities, harsh landscapes and Islamic foundation; Ryan visits mosques, local herdsmen, farming communities and former silk road trading posts trying to capture what he feels is a collection of cultures under threat from China’s breakneck growth in the region.
“The culture is vanishing before my eyes”, Ryan says, “each time I return something is missing: a market, an old shop full of blacksmiths, a local mosque.” Traveling only with a Uygur translator, Ryan feels that the importance of capturing these cultures is paramount because it is disappearing. “No other country in the world is knocking down old buildings faster to make way for new hotels, highways and airports than China. A few more years and there might not be much left at all; the whole country, from Beijing to Kashgar, is starting to look the same. It is a pity really, that the cultural diversity being lost is not something that can be faked, or easily brought back. This cultural fabric will be lost forever.”
Ryan was recently acknowledged as one of the PDN 30 (http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/index.jsp; http://www.pdngallery.com/gallery/pdns30
Joining a long tradition of documentary photography, Ryan’s documentation of Chinese Turkistan melds this tradition with that of fine art film photography. Each print in this show is hand printed in a wet darkroom, the processes echoing the images.
Ryan will speak about his work Thursday, August 6th at 6:30PM. The reception will be held from 7PM-9PM.
by Documentary Photographer Ryan Pyle
Time:6:30PM Thursday, August 6th
Location:Dylan Ellis Gallery
