The Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival is an annual event, open to the public, that features exhibitions and installations across the city of Toronto (Tkaronto). This year marks the 25th anniversary of CONTACT, and photographers have been asked to reflect themes of intense upheaval of the present day and global awakenings that have inspired hopeful futures.

For our exhibit in this year’s CONTACT Festival, Photographers Without Borders asked our members to reimagine. Reimagine a new future for the world—and for each other. Through this, we hope these images can act as guiding lights towards a stronger future, making space for diverse voices and creating a new vision for the world.

The following photographs speak to a reimagining of identity and boundaries. The mix of portraits place individuals in natural spaces, either outdoors or in their own dwellings, and encourage viewers to reshape their perspective of the locations and people for an inclusive existence. In each person, we see glimpses of curiosity, self acceptance, and tender assuredness in the reclaiming of those spaces and asserting their presence within them.

Elke Scholiers

Elke Scholiers is an independent photographer currently based in Vietnam. She has recently worked with the community of Kinmen in Taiwan to amplify their voices in speaking to their geopolitical conflict with China.

Yang Jiaxin stands in front of anti-landing spikes near Guningtou in the highly militarized islands of Kinmen. By re-imagining their past, generations of Kinmenese are hoping to understand what it means to be Kinmenese, Taiwanese or Chinese—or all three at once.

Rodrigo West

Rodrigo West is a documentary and portrait photographer born in Rio de Janeiro and based in Salvador (Bahia), Brazil. His work is inspired by the social, economical and cultural multiplicities within Afro-Brazillian communities and how they influence, and are influenced by, their interactions with their environment.

With increased access to smartphones and technology, children have oftentimes forgotten how to feel the environment, have fun and play with friends. In this state of over-connectedness, sometimes we just need to be present, listen and contemplate.

Vincent Pohaku

Vincent Pohaku is a photographer based in Hawaii and loves sharing his Polynesian culture, as well as interacting with and learning from other cultures outside his own.

This photo reflects the island lifestyle in simpler times. It serves to reimagine the quality of life within island communities beyond the current preoccupations with the social rat race and self-concern.

Jonathan Lovett

Jonathan Lovett is a fine art film photographer working out of New York City. His work focuses on queer experience and the modalities in which queer individuals interact with the environments around them, whether natural or constructed.

The goal of this image is to reimagine an ecology in which reality is painted pink, a stereotypical colour associated with gay men. This image also displays a tender interaction with nature, which has too often been understood through a heterosexual lens.

Stephanie Rose

Stephanie Rose is a birth photographer and storyteller based in Alberta, Canada. Her lifelong goal has been to tell stories that matter through art and photography.