Chosen Family Portraits is a community-based art project commissioned during the 2010 Vancouver Queer Film Festival with Artists-in-Residence Sarah Race and Sarah Buchanan.

Early on Saturday, August 14, 2010, photographer Sarah Race and radio journalist Sarah Buchanan—and a team of sprightly volunteers—packed a minivan full of lights, sandbags, extension cords and recording equipment and headed to the Roundhouse Arts and Recreation Centre. This somewhat ragtag crew set up a DIY portrait and recording studio in the bold visual arts exhibit of the Queer Arts Festival and waited for their first appointment of the day—a recently wed young lesbian couple.

This was the beginning of the Chosen Family Portraits project, a community-based art project hosted by the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. For this project we invited our Festival audience and dynamic communities to model with their chosen families and to share their stories. After day one at the Roundhouse, the crew transported the entire set up to the upstairs lobby of Granville 7 Cinemas for another vigorous two days of photo shoots and storytelling. A total of 28 families visited the portrait studio to pose with their loved ones, bffs, kids, parents, allies and whomever they considered chosen family.

Chosen Family Portraits has provided an incredible opportunity for the involved artists, volunteers and Festival staff to build connections and create visibility around vibrant aspects of our queer and allied communities in Vancouver. This project—displayed as public art on commemorative lamppost plaques across Vancouver—is a central component of Celebrate Queer Vancouver. Returning to its original venue, Chosen Family Portraits will also be exhibited as part of the Queer Arts Festival at the Roundhouse Arts and Recreation Centre, July 26–August 13 and at the Museum of Vancouver, August through September.

For more about the artists, pick up a Celebrate Queer Vancouver programme.

Where to See Chosen Family Portraits

Queer Arts Festival Exhibition
Roundhouse Arts and Recreation Centre
181 Roundhouse Mews
July 26-Aug 13
Free!

The Museum of Vancouver
1100 Chestnut Street
Aug-Sept
$8-12