Emanating sisterhood through the Exposure Photography Festival
Katrina Ebuenga, Staff Writer
There is a great intimacy to capturing a still moment in time.
Captured by Lana Collins, All My Sisters freezes time through photography, allowing audiences to ruminate on fleeting moments. Exploring themes of femininity, sisterhood and emotional tenderness, Collins’ project reveals moments of connection that go unspoken.
“It feels like an innate feeling of knowing one another, even though you might not,” says Collins.
Displaying sisterhood in all its forms, the space Collins creates opens the floor for audiences to explore the meaning of relationships. Her lens directs attention to the bonds that grow between friends, strangers and communities.
Collins was Exposure’s Emerging Photographer of the Year for 2025. This year, her solo exhibition, presented by Exposure Photography Festival and hosted in partnership with Contemporary Calgary, will engage with viewers through the unconditional lens of female friendship.
“Sisterhood is saying, ‘you feel like me. I trust you with myself,’” says Collins.
Focusing on women and queer individuals, she captures the wordless truth of truly being seen by one another.
With a set designed to replicate a bedroom, the audience is encouraged to explore every aspect the room has to offer. Presenting ideas of safety and softness, All My Sisters brings tenderness to the forefront, opening the space for everyone to fully immerse themselves.
“For the people who feel connected to sisterhood themselves or feel aligned with that identity, I hope they feel seen, feel like they know me,” says Collins. “And for the people that are not part of that sisterhood, I have no idea how they’re gonna feel, but my only hope is that people actually interact with the space.”
Collins brings all sorts of materials and reimagining to the chaotic beauty of sisterhood. She hopes audiences will enter the space through a different perspective.
“I want people to feel like they can engage with it because I feel like that is another huge part of sisterhood,” says Collins. “It’s like being allowed into the physical and emotional space, and that’s what I want people to feel like when they look at it.”
Her journey
Starting her photography journey in 2021 with a disposable film camera gifted by a friend, Collins has shaped a space for everyone to experience what girlhood feels like through her self-taught craft.
By taking the emotional aspects of femininity and transforming them into visual form, Collins draws attention to gestures that go unnoticed.
Reflecting on her friendships, Collins’ idea of sisterhood stems from knowing someone over time, which has been spent together.
“Sisterhood is an innate knowingness of each other,” she says. “Its the understanding that you don’t really know each other as well, and the same with yourself, you don’t always know who you are.”
The connection of knowing becomes the focal point that Collins directs her lens towards, with ideas of community and forged bonds shining through her work.
Throughout this project, Collins has encountered memorable moments that have shaped her art. She says that while she doesn’t envision her pictures beforehand, she comes up with ideas by being perceptive.
“I feel like doing this project has forced me to think about so many ideas constantly… and so there was a moment where I was like, ‘Oh, I feel confident in the decisions and the ideas that I have creatively,’” she says.
Taking inspiration from other talented photographers such as Petra Collins, Sophia Wilson, and Summer Wagner, Collins considers her project a celebration of sisterhood and girlhood formed around the unspoken gestures and being surrounded by a community that truly understands.
“That’s what sisterhood feels like to me,” she says. “I know how you exist in the world. I know how you go throughout this world.”
Sharing a very intimate moment during the last shoot, Collins says, “it felt so special” seeing the instant bond and comfort the other women shared. These small yet shared moments go unseen by many.
Collins describes how all of the girls were really there for one another. Although it was only a shoot, the girls truly began comforting each other, forming real connections against the imaginary backdrop Collins constructed.
“I feel like it is a good example of what happened at all of the shoots,” she says. “When five to seven different girls who had never met before really got to connect with each other, which felt really awesome to watch and be part of.”
Exposure’s Emerging Photographer of the Year for 2025, Lana Collins is set to
present her new solo exhibition All My Sisters at the 2026 festival. Photo by Lana
Collins
Exposure Photography Festival
In addition to Collins’ All My Sisters exhibition, the festival will showcase emerging other photographic art in the Northwest Showcase, formerly known as the Emerging Photographers Showcase.
The selected artists from across Canada will participate in a group exhibition held at Contemporary Calgary, spotlighting the unique perspective each lens is able to capture.
Calgary-based photographers such as Kathryn Audet are set to explore the vulnerable sides of loss, creating a legacy of a loved one through visual form.
Alongside Audet, other talented photographers tackle themes of emotional exploration and personal experience, which are captured uniquely by the festival’s lineup.
The festival will open on Feb. 5 to March 5, 2026 at Contemporary Calgary with free admission on their Free First Thursday.
See the different perspectives each photographer has to offer, which often encapsulate more than words can provide.
