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one to watch

Canadian Raymond Boisjoly is among the four finalists for the $50,000 Aimia/AGO Photography Prize.Jody Rogac/The Canadian Press

The Canadian hopeful for this year's Aimia/AGO Photography Prize is Raymond Boisjoly, a Vancouver-based artist from the Haida Nation. The shortlist of four photographers, announced this week, also counts Japan's Taisuke Koyama, Russian-Ghanaian Liz Johnson Artur and American Hank Willis Thomas as contenders for the $50,000 cash prize.

Boisjoly looks at the way art can define Indigenous people and be an answer to colonial context. In his series "Rez Gas," Boisjoly compiles an image inventory of all the gas stations on First Nations reserves in British Columbia. Also shortlisted for this year's Sobey Art Award, Boisjoly, represented by Vancouver's Catriona Jeffries gallery, is on a bit of a hot streak.

Celebrating excellence in contemporary photography and photo-based art, the Aimia/AGO is believed to be the only major international art prize selected by public vote. The four finalists will present their work in an exhibition opening on Sept. 6 at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Voting begins in person at the AGO after the exhibition opens and on the prize's website beginning one week later.

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