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On Greg Girard
Greg Girard is a Canadian photographer renowned for documenting urban and social transformations, particularly in Asia's largest cities. His journeys to Asia often began in California. Girard's first significant trip was an 18-day freighter voyage from San Francisco to Hong Kong. Subsequent travels were by air, involving multiple stops and open-ended tickets. Traveling on a tight budget, Girard frequently stayed in inexpensive motels or 24-hour establishments.
Girard began his career in Vancouver, focusing on nighttime urban scenes. His early interest in artificial light and urban life laid the groundwork for his later work in Asia. His time in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Shanghai produced iconic images, including those of the Kowloon Walled City.
Girard’s work has appeared in TIME, Newsweek, National Geographic, and The New Yorker. He has published several books, including Phantom Shanghai, listed among the top ten photography books by The Independent (UK). His work has been exhibited at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, the International Center for Photography, and other notable venues.
America during the 1970s and early 1980s
American Stopover presents a series of photographs from Greg Girard's travels in America during the 1970s and early 1980s. These images, many previously unpublished, capture transient scenes in airports, hotels, bars, and restaurants in California, Nevada, and Hawaii.
The photographs in American Stopover document Girard's experiences in cities like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Honolulu, his images depicting the urban environments and highlighting both vibrant and gritty aspects of these locations.
'In the 1970s and early 1980s, trips to Asia always began in California,' Girard writes in a brief text in the back of the book. 'Sailing by freighter from San Francisco, or on multi-stopover air tickets to Tokyo or Bangkok originating in SFO or LAX. I stayed in cheap hotels, or half-slept in all-night cinemas, met people and walked the streets photographing by day and by night. I would linger for days or for weeks, traveling by Greyhound to other cities, and then at some point eventually boarding a plane or ship to cross the Pacific. In a way these pictures mark the beginning of a trip I never returned from. A time of heightened anticipation: the new everyday around me, and the one to come when finally arriving in one of Asia's great cities (and, as it turned out, not leaving for decades).'