Artist's Canadian Mosaic Project focuses on 35,000 portraits of a nation

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

When photographer Tim Van Horn packed his belongings, camera gear and two dogs into a trailer, he set off for an epic art project. Called the Canadian Mosaic Project, Van Horn was inspired by the Canadian Flag and decided to create both the largest tapestry and the biggest portrait of a nation.

Tim Van Horn was in Toronto recently to continue his mission towards 35,000 Canadian portraits for Canada's 150th birthday in 2017. This number represents a seemingly miniscule .1% of the population of Canada but it will be the most comprehensive portrait ever created on the Canadian people.

The project, which started in 2008  brought Van Horn across much of the country where he has been able to capture thousands of portraits of every day Canadians.

"This is a project that I would have never been able to consider using film photography," Van Horn told me during an interview last week. He explained that shooting thousands of rolls of film, getting them processed, corrected and printed would have been insanely expensive and time consuming.

Armed with his DSLR, a trusty 85mm prime lens and using tools like Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Creative Suite, Van Horn is able to shoot, process and share his work instantaneously and with greater ease.

Using a digital-based workflow makes it possible for Van Horn to adopt the quick pace of shooting and editing required to process the massive selection of photos.

Van Horn taught himself Lightroom, Photoshop and Illustrator as well as the blogging software he uses to maintain a running online narrative of his experiences.

Adobe Lightroom, in particular, allows Van Horn to create specific edits and shortcuts that give his photos a distinctive and uniform feel once they are being integrated into the giant Canadian flag tapestry. A digital version of how this flag is made up of multiple minute photos can be seen in his website.

"The idea of studying Canada’s layered cultural identities and examining our humanity is a life mission I have assigned myself. We need one person out here telling the true-life story of, who we are. I am open to everything and everyone around, in turn I am gifted with everyone seemingly trusting in me and agreeing to being photographed for the mosaic," Van Horn says in his website.

"For the past 42 months I have slept, worked and lived out of a van to keep this portrait of Canada moving forward for Canada’s 150th in 2017. To date over 13,400 portraits have been created in hundred's of locations across Canada. From Nunavut to Tofino!"

Portrait photography is often considered to be the most challenging since it requires a degree of mastery over the subject which is based on trust. "Canadians are gracious, I have an 80 per cent success rate in getting them to pose for me once I explain what the project is all about," Van Horn explains.

This element of trust and participation makes it possible for Van Horn to have thousands of models pose without the requisite release forms involved in photographing people.

Top photo - Gadjo C. Sevilla, all other images courtesy of Tim Van Horn