Artist Q & A: Anthony Redpath
For his anticipated new solo exhibition Chance at Bliss, award-winning Vancouver based photographic artist Anthony Redpath offers enlightening technical details and behind-the-scenes insight on the making of his newest images.
Chance at Bliss opens at Bau-Xi Vancouver on July 18 and runs through August 1, 2026.
1. Your west coast beach scenes resonate tremendously with viewers and collectors. What are some of the characteristics of your home city of Vancouver that compel you as a photographic subject?
The west coast of Canada is one of the best places to live in the world. It is beautiful, the weather is mild, and it is comparatively unpolluted. It is a mosaic of cultures, and one of the safer places to live that I have found on the planet. I believe the viewers find the locales aspirational and the people relatable - they see their home and their place of escape.
While I think these images can be meaningful to people in many parts of the world, I have Vancouver and its everyday happenings, joys and concerns very much in the forefront of my mind.
2. Can you talk about some of the more technical sides of your process – what types and levels of preparation and permission are involved, and how do you construct your images? Does spontaneity ever come into play?
I start by utilizing the highest resolution equipment available to me at the time – my current camera is a Phase One IQ4 150 Megapixel Camera with XF series Schneider Kreuznach Blue Ring lenses. From a lifetime on the coast, I have many locations in my mind that I want to photograph; the process is quite involved and requires a significant amount of preparation. Depending on where the shoot takes place and the scale of the production, location permits may be necessary. 
I scout chosen locations to determine the current state of the landscapes and the best angles to view them from. Then I make a series of test exposures to determine the composition in advance of the final shoot. I check dates at certain times of day for frequency of use, weather forecast, state of air clarity, and tidal movements to determine when to shoot. Sometimes I can capture all I need over one final visit within a period of roughly an hour, but most locations need to be shot over multiple days.
When the talent are featured close to the camera, I interact with them directly, communicating in some way with either a few words or a formal process with instructions. However, while I act as director, I always encourage them to behave as authentically as possible. Larger crowds at a distance are not possible to control during shooting, so I manipulate them in post-production if needed. In the construction of the image files, I orchestrate and move figures around from various individual shots, or layers. The final images are comprised of 15-50+ layers.
3. You cite the Vancouver School (Jeff Wall, Stan Douglas, Douglas Coupland, Rodney Graham) as a major influence. How do you see your work continuing or diverging from that lineage?
These Vancouver artists have come to international attention and put Vancouver on the map as a major centre for artistic development - I love how they all work conceptually and that they utilize large scale execution for visual impact. Jeff Wall’s detailed studio sets are really epic; Stan Douglas comments on historical events with his own insightful narrative and powerful visual impact; Douglas Coupland has a brilliant grasp on modern culture and a great sense of colour and design; I love how Rodney Graham transforms himself as a subject into many different characters - he is also a talented musician and painter.
I have a huge respect for all of their talents and they all subconsciously affect my work.
Right, 140 years later: Anthony Redpath, Kits Beach II, 2026.
Artists from the more distant past are also influences - I feel like I was being guided by Georges Seurat and his work A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte while I was creating Kit Beach II. With what I know and understand, I try to move forward into the execution of my own vision and ideas.
Anthony Redpath, Kits Beach II. Archival Inkjet Print Mounted on Archival Substrate, 4 sizes
4. Can you provide behind-the-scenes details for that spectacular new image Kits Beach II?
This one was fairly involved - I visited the site several times just to determine the composition framing. I then shot a set of background plates with as few people as possible to create a canvas to work with. Next I shot image plates with people in different positions over several days. With their consent, I arranged a few foreground people for the benefit of the composition. All the usable image plates were shot within the same 1/2 hour time period on each of the days with the same kind of weather.
The technical and practical aspects can be a challenge - sometimes there were too many people on the grass to shoot any image plates at all. Sometimes the vibe wasn’t right - for example, the crowd is more relaxed on a Friday night or a Sunday night vs a Saturday evening when some people may have been at the beach for several hours, often drinking a fair amount of alcohol. Even with all the planning and prep, it does take some luck and providence for conditions to align to really bring it all together.
5. Hadden Beach, your newest image, brilliantly illustrates the status of dogs in Vancouver – can you tell us more about the making of this image as well?
Hadden Beach is a designated off-leash waterfront in Vancouver - the fact that the city has established many off-leash spaces really indicates the need and demand. I utilized the same image making process as I did for Kits Beach II, also shooting over several days. As I can't leave any items onsite from day to day, I used stones to mark where my tripod was positioned. This site doesn’t get terribly crowded as most people simply come down to let their dogs run around and have some free space to roam and explore; the partygoers tend to frequent other beaches. As a result, there is some breathing space between the dogs and dog owners. Many dogs take off from their owners, temporarily forming play groups with other dogs - the dogs people bring down are usually comfortable socializing with others. In upwards of ten visits to this beach, I didn’t see one instance of dogs fighting. The people in this photograph are some distance from the camera, so there was no need to communicate with the human subjects in this work - though the humans were just as compelling as the dog subjects.
The artist on location in Vancouver with his special assistant.