PORTRAITS
The Official Portraits
We have mounted the official portrait feature at dozens of events in every province and territory of Canada as well as at an international guitar festival in Piemonte, Italy. The settings have been anything from hockey arenas and school gyms to art galleries and festival tents to theatre lobbies and the 40th floor of the Royal Bank building in downtown Toronto. It's a way to create an orderly and respectful space for people to have this close encounter and have it captured for posterity. We do not charge individuals for these photos. They become souvenirs of both the moment and the place where it happened. It has become arguably the most ambitious portrait project in the country, with somewhere in the vicinity of 150,000 images captured of 15,000 different people posed with Voyageur
in locations across Canada and beyond.
Doug Nicholson
is the official portrait photographer of the project, shooting around 99% of the collection.
A small number of photos were also taken by Jim Panou, Sarah Gillett and David Wiewel.
Browse all portraits
If you had your official portrait taken at an event, you should have received your set of photos automatically by email in the weeks following. If you feel you never received them or have since lost them, find them on Flickr, where you can download for free. Click the year when you attended the event to drill into the directory more accurately.
All the images in the Flickr galleries are at 72dpi web resolution and bannered with the event identity, sponsor recognitions or other information. If you would like to order archival-quality giclée prints of a particular photo or purchase higher resolution, unbannered images from your session to take to your own photo-printing solution, please be ready with all information about the image or images you're requesting at hand and visit our shop.
Booking the portrait feature
Including the portrait feature as part of your event brings an extra special dimension to the experience - literally putting history in the hands of your audience, your community, your staff, your friends - and creates a precious memento.
There are additional costs as well as facilities and volunteer requirements to operate the station.
You also need to have the time in your schedule to run it. We like to give every subject our full attention. Every subject receives multiple photos from their session and can take the time to do solo shots, special poses, shots with friends, family, colleagues, pets, etc.
While the portrait feature is a requirement for festival events, for most others it is optional. Costs can be partly or fully offset by recognizing sponsors on the finished portraits that are distributed electronically following the event. While we are OK with people taking their own candid photos with Voyageur
provided certain security and volunteer requirements are met, including the portrait feature makes them part of the project.
In rare instances, we can also conduct bespoke portrait sessions outside of other events. To learn more, visit our Bookings page.
The candid community
Apart from the vast gallery of official portraits we've amassed, we've taken countless others in our travels and thousands more pictures exist in private collections across Canada and around the world as people have taken their own candid photos and hastily composed portraits at various events. If you have photos of yourself or your friends and family with Voyageur
you'd like to share, please join the Candid Community on the I Played the Six String Nation Guitar Facebook Group. On all social media and photo-sharing platforms, when sharing your photos with Voyageur, be sure to use the hashtag #SixStringNation.
And if you're curious about our photos with Chris Hadfield, check out our
Astronauts page!
