Firelight

Ghostly vintage photographs reborn through light — each hand-pierced print shimmering with memory, absence, and rebirth.

Firelight by Amy Friend is a captivating photographic collection that breathes new life into vintage photographs from the 1920s to the 1940s. Sourced from family albums, online finds, and market discoveries, these images are re-imagined through Friend’s artistic vision. The series, titled “Dare alla Luce”—Italian for “to bring to the light”—embodies a dual meaning of illumination and birth. By introducing delicate perforations and backlighting, Friend transforms these historical moments into ethereal scenes where figures and landscapes are adorned with luminous patterns, evoking a sense of magic and nostalgia. This interplay of light and shadow invites viewers to reflect on the transient nature of time, memory, and existence. Firelight is presented in a meticulously crafted volume, featuring laser-cut paper and French binding, all encased in a cloth-bound box. This edition is a testament to the fusion of past and present, art and artifact.

Amy Friend is an award-winning Canadian artist working through photography, installation, and community-based collaborations. Her process-driven practice explores personal and collective histories, time, land-memory, oceans, dust, and our connections to the universe. Friend’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in major exhibitions, festivals, and institutions including the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris), incamera galerie (France), Paris Photo, Meymac Centre d’art contemporain (France), Gexto Photofestival (Spain), DongGang Photography Museum (South Korea), Onassis Cultural Centre (Greece), GuatePhoto (Guatemala), Encontros da Imagem (Portugal), Alzueta Gallery (Spain), Photoville (New York), Museum London (Canada), Rodman Hall (Canada), and Abbaye de Silvacane (France). Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Time, California Sunday Magazine, GUP (Amsterdam), EKI(Italy), LUX (Poland), and The Walrus (Canada). Friend was selected for the 2019 Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery (London, UK) and is a multiple Top 50 finalist and the 2014 winner of Critical Mass. She also exhibited in Elles X at Paris Photo 2018. Friend is currently creating new work with support from the Ontario Arts Council and is working with L’ Artiere Publishign on a new monograph set for release in the Autumn of 2025. Amy Friend is a Canadian artist working with various methodologies through photography, installation, and community based collaborations. Friend’s process driven work has been included in national and international exhibitions, projects and festivals including, Gexto Photofestival (Spain), Paris Photo, incamera galerie (France), Museum London (Canada), Onassis Cultural Center (Greece), ASPA (Sardinia), DongGang Photography Museum (South Korea), GuatePhoto (Guatemala), Mosteiro de Tibães at the Encontros Da Imagem (Portugal), Rodman Hall (Canada), Photoville (New York, USA), National Portrait Gallery, (UK), and at the Abbaye De Silvacane, La Roque D'Antheron (France).

Friend is an Associate Professor of Visual Arts at Brock University, Niagara, Canada.

Amy Friend recognizes and sends immense thanks for support from the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Arts Council for the Arts.