Trapper with her wolf pelt, Sunnydale, Yukon Territory, November 19, 2014. | Photo by Rafael Gerszak, Boreal Collective

Rafal Gerszak, photographer, will be speaking at the next Global Civic’s 25th Public Salon, on May 4, 2016 at the Vancouver Playhouse.

Gerszak is part of the Boreal Collective, a group of 12 internationally-based photographers whose mandate is to “explore complex narratives and communicate stories visually, with patience, commitment and integrity,” to document humanity in a world that is rapidly changing.

First road trip

When Gerszak was eight years old, his life was uprooted. When his family left their home in Poland, his parents told him they were going on a road trip.

“They packed up their little car with a bunch of our belongings. That was how I left Poland. I didn’t even really have a chance to say good bye,” recalls Gerszak.

Gerszak and his family stayed in a West Germany refugee camp for a couple of years, where he was exposed to many cultures, but also a lot of racism. Gerszak recalls being pulled by his ear by his German teacher to sit outside the classroom for no reason, and a group of racists who would lock the doors of the apartments, take the mattresses available for refugees and burn them.

Canadian experience

Freda Huson, middle, greets hereditary chiefs from all five clans of the
Wet’suwet’en at the Unist’ot’en bridge checkpoint in northern British Columbia, September 3, 2015

In 1990, when Gerszak was nearly 10, he and his family moved to Canada; his parents now live in Edmonton and Gerszak in Vancouver. He credits his childhood experience for making him feel at ease with people of all cultures.

“I didn’t feel uncomfortable in anybody’s home – didn’t matter what they were cooking or what language they were speaking or what religion they believed in. Everything was normal to me because that’s what I grew up with,” he explains.

When Gerszak completed high school, he took a trip back to Poland to reconnect with his culture and family and bought a Sony point-and-shoot camera at an airport along the way. His parents printed a few photos from his trip and posted them on their restaurant wall. A photography professor who frequented the restaurant noticed the photographs and said the photographer had a good eye and should think about going to school for photography.

“That totally revolutionized my life because I had no idea you could…that photography was a job, that it was a career – that there’s a school for it and you can make money off of photographs,” says Gerszak.

War zone and beyond

“[In Afghanistan], it didn’t matter how you dressed, it didn’t matter how you looked, it didn’t matter the type of person you are. It didn’t matter what kind of car you drove or what kind of clothes you wore. When I came back here, all of a sudden, all these things mattered,” he says.

When he returned to Canada at the end of 2010, he found himself spending more time outdoors, fishing and watching wildlife, which led him to travel north to the Yukon in 2013.

“I was reading there was more moose in the Yukon than people. Ok, I was like that‘s the place I want to go,” he says.

Gerszak says that people go to the Yukon for a vacation and end up moving there; he and his girlfriend are even contemplating getting a property there, though he will continue to work out of Vancouver.

Gerszak has plans on continuing to photograph and document life in northern Canada, such as the those who live as fur trappers, which he observes is a dying trade, as well as climate change and its effect on the environment.

“What draws me the most is the peacefulness. There’s no traffic. No sirens. No street lights. I love that I can walk to a stream, drink right out of the stream, catch a fish and eat my food right there. I love all that,” he says.

For more information, visit www.globalcivic.org.