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INTERVIEW

A World Beneath a City

Greg Girard

INTERVIEW

A World Beneath a City

20.07.2026

Greg Girard

Writer

Zahra Amiruddin

I often contemplate the underlying personality of a city. While the inhabitants are living representations of a place; it is the sound, smell, light, and streets that often determine its energy. For Canadian Photographer, Greg Girard (b. 1955), the city has been a muse across his dynamic practice that has led him to author several photobooks that include historical documentations of Asia’s largest metropolises during the latter part of the 20th century. For instance, in his book “City of Darkness Revisited" he has managed to capture the bubbling energy of the Kowloon Walled City, that was the densest place on Earth with 33,000 inhabitants before it was demolished in 1994. Similarly, in “JAL 76-88,” Girard paints a portrait of Tokyo from 1976-1983, that has undertones of a futuristic universe. In a recently released book titled, “American Stopover,” the photographic cartographer documents the west coast of USA that he terms has always been a magnet for young searchers. He explains that

I often contemplate the underlying personality of a city. While the inhabitants are living representations of a place; it is the sound, smell, light, and streets that often determine its energy. For Canadian Photographer, Greg Girard (b. 1955), the city has been a muse across his dynamic practice that has led him to author several photobooks that include historical documentations of Asia’s largest metropolises during the latter part of the 20th century. For instance, in his book “City of Darkness Revisited" he has managed to capture the bubbling energy of the Kowloon Walled City, that was the densest place on Earth with 33,000 inhabitants before it was demolished in 1994. Similarly, in “JAL 76-88,” Girard paints a portrait of Tokyo from 1976-1983, that has undertones of a futuristic universe. In a recently released book titled, “American Stopover,” the photographic cartographer documents the west coast of USA that he terms has always been a magnet for young searchers. He explains that

I often contemplate the underlying personality of a city. While the inhabitants are living representations of a place; it is the sound, smell, light, and streets that often determine its energy. For Canadian Photographer, Greg Girard (b. 1955), the city has been a muse across his dynamic practice that has led him to author several photobooks that include historical documentations of Asia’s largest metropolises during the latter part of the 20th century. For instance, in his book “City of Darkness Revisited" he has managed to capture the bubbling energy of the Kowloon Walled City, that was the densest place on Earth with 33,000 inhabitants before it was demolished in 1994. Similarly, in “JAL 76-88,” Girard paints a portrait of Tokyo from 1976-1983, that has undertones of a futuristic universe. In a recently released book titled, “American Stopover,” the photographic cartographer documents the west coast of USA that he terms has always been a magnet for young searchers. He explains that

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Shinjuku 5:09 am. 1979 from "JAL 76-88" © Greg Girard
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Platform conductor, Ikebukuro, Tokyo. 1976 from "JAL 76-88" © Greg Girard
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"American Stopover," Banner Theatre, Los Angeles. 1976 © Greg Girard
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"American Stopover," Greyhound passenger, Texas, 1978 © Greg Girard

ZA :

There is a distinctive sense of cinema in your imagery. Almost as if the photographs were slices of a film set, devoid of its crew. Are you fascinated by the medium of the moving image? And would it be correct to notice its presence in your tryst with the static image?

GG :

I’ve always been a big film fan. But if you first started paying attention to film in the 1970s in America, it would be relatively hard to point to movies that were stylistic enough to notice the work of the cinematographer (among the standout exceptions are some the defining films of the time: Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, and Fat City…). In other words, not all films are “cinematic”. And so, when I did come across a kind of signature look on screen, I felt like I was seeing the vision of someone who reacted to the world in the same way that I did.

ZA :

I find that your photographs act like “pauses” in daily life. To elaborate, it seems that there is a literal freeze in time that’s apparent in the energy of the frame. Does the world around you feel like its temporarily paused when you look through the viewfinder?

GG :

I make a lot of pictures using a tripod, photographing at twilight, or at night. Long exposures. Other times, I’ll make the “wherever and whenever” pictures that you stumble across and often only see when you’re out photographing, by day or night. So, I make those “walking around” pictures in the street, or wherever, the kind you respond to instinctively, as well as the more considered ones on a tripod. I don’t really know why but somehow by photographing the world, you make a place for yourself in it. The photographs are a kind of byproduct of that.

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“Phantom Shanghai,” 2007 © Greg Girard
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“City of Darkness Revisited,” 1987-1990 © Greg Girard
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“Under Vancouver 1972-1982,” Hong Kong Cafe, Chinatown. 1975 © Greg Girard

ZA :

As photographers who capture the architecture of living spaces and their evolution over time, in the future, we become chroniclers of a historic past. Do you have thoughts about this enigmatic power of the image, and its importance in a world where everything is fiercely documented?

GG :

As long as images can do what words can’t, it’s hard to imagine we will ever satisfy our appetite for them.

ZA :

As you mentioned earlier, the ‘night,’ seems to be a close companion in your bodies of work. Would you be able to elaborate on its recurring presence?

GG :

I was drawn to it from the start. Even as a teenager, I first began photographing at night. If you’re going to school or working, night might be the only opportunity to make pictures, so that might have played a part. As a kid, I was also attracted to the slightly forbidden and adult parts of town that you weren’t supposed to venture into, which leads immediately into the world at night. Later, I was curious to see what various artificial light sources looked like on daylight film at night in various cities on both sides of the Pacific. It was a different kind of adventure, and in a way even more exciting. For many years after, I felt like I had “night” all to myself so to speak, as outrageous as that might sound.

ZA :

Through your numerous travels, has there been a photograph that has stayed with you, or might have impacted the way you think, see, or feel?

GG :

Probably more than any photograph that I’ve made, it’s a photograph by someone else that has impacted me. And there are many “someone elses.” But the particular one that stays with me is a photograph by Eliot Elisofon of the Hong Kong Harbour in 1962. Elisofon isn’t much remembered today, but it was his photograph in the Time Life book on photography that first made me want to visit Hong Kong. It was the place where I ended up living for many years, and eventually started working as a magazine photographer. From time to time, I meet people who tell me - almost unbelievably - that it was one of my books that inspired them to move to Hong Kong or Japan. And I can honestly tell them that I know what they mean.

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“City of Darkness Revisited,” 1987-1990 © Greg Girard
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“City of Darkness Revisited,” 1987-1990 © Greg Girard

ZA :

If there was one aspect of your experience with photography that has remained consistent, and another that has drastically changed, what would it be?

GG :

For a long time I was under the impression that a difficult photograph was equivalent to a successful one, which of course is nonsense. You might have to endure physical hardships or risks, or doggedly negotiate access to make a photograph you want to make, and there’s a level of personal satisfaction in achieving that. But after many years of working for magazines and experiencing that, I realized that the photographs I liked the best were the ones that had no story. In retrospect they might have even been “easy” to make. They are the images that were made by a younger me before I became a news and events photographer in Hong Kong and later in Shanghai. Though to be clear, I was thrilled to make a living as a magazine photographer. It was, as the cliché goes, a dream come true. I learned a lot and had the privilege to work with talented, dedicated people. But ultimately it was a detour. I grew frustrated with the limitations of making pictures that were essentially illustrations of editorial themes, and decided to return to those earlier impulses and concentrate on making pictures “for myself.” I was living in Shanghai at the time, and I pretty much turned my back on journalism. I continued to accept assignments to make a living, and still for the most part thoroughly enjoyed it, but I was now looking at the world differently. After five years of photographing “for myself” in Shanghai – covering the interiors and exteriors of homes and businesses, I got offered a gallery show in Canada and then a book offer. Both of which were the result of pure timing and chance. And while I had no control over that, it would have likely never happened without that long detour into the world of journalism. The deadlines and structure built some mental muscles that I didn’t have, and perhaps an awareness that there might be an audience out there for my work. To view more of the artist’s work, visit www.greggirardpictures.com or @gregforaday on Instagram.

A World Beneath a City - Greg Girard