Orest Semchishen

Semchishen, Orest

Orest Semchishen, photographer (b at Mundare, Alta 1932). A radiologist by profession, Semchishen took up photography initially as a hobby. In the early 1970s, after taking University of Alberta extension classes, he turned to documentary work and since that time has continued to work in the classic documentary tradition. Probably the most important influence on his work is the American photographer Walker Evans, although Semchishen's vision has its own distinct personality and the wide-ranging scope of his work and its comprehensiveness recalls the achievement of the great French photographer Eugène Atget.

Beginning with a survey of Alberta's Byzantine rite churches that were a part of his Ukrainian heritage, Semchishen's oeuvre has expanded to encompass rural communities, city business districts and markets, ethnic groups, fur trappers and prairie farms. In the process he has developed an increasingly sophisticated vision and technique: his prints are marvels of brilliance and tonal balance. Semchishen continues to document exhaustively. He has compiled an extraordinary record of Canadian life, centered on the Prairies but extending across the country.

A resident of Edmonton, Orest Semchishen's works are represented in public collections including those of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Edmonton Art Gallery and the CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY. Negatives of his photographs are housed in the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA.