Amauti, 2018
Katherine Takpannie’s Life in Pictures
When Katherine Takpannie was 15, she took a point‐and ‐shoot camera she got from her uncle and began a project where she took a photo every day for about nine months: people, nature, buildings. She still has those photos and when she looks at them now, she sees how the seeds of curiosity and wonder bloomed into a career in photography.
I always try to have my camera with me because sometimes the world is so beautiful and I want to capture that,” she says.
Takpannie, 32, is an award‐winning, Ottawa‐based photographer who uses her camera to show her vision of the world, to process the experiences of colonialism and acculturation, to amplify Indigenous voices and causes, and to capture the beauty of the land.
Macabre Sense of Mischief, 2017
Takpannie has transformed those life experiences into haunting, captivating images which have been featured in prestigious galleries. In 2020, Takpannie was one of three winners of the National Gallery of Canada’s Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award, and some of her photos were selected for an exhibit there.
My photography has always been a way for me to express myself, to create something out of all the different things that have happened in my life.
One of those photos, entitled “Our Women and Girls Are Sacred,” (featured on our cover) shows a woman facing away from the camera, her body ringed in red smoke. The photo was part of a series to address the trauma of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two‐spirit people and to honour the memory of her friend, Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook, who was found dead in the Ottawa River in 2016. Though Ottawa Police deemed Pootoogook’s death suspicious, no one was ever charged with a crime.
“Therapeutic art is so important. It helps ground us. It’s a healthy outlet. Finding healthy healing avenues is very important,” Takpannie said. “My life has not always been very healthy. The reconnection to my culture and the expression through my art has been one of the healthiest things in my life. Alongside my loving husband and my son.”
Untitled, 2020
The National Gallery isn’t the only venue to take notice of Takpannie’s emerging work. A huge version of “Amautik” currently adorns outdoor banners at the Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives in Brampton. In 2020, she earned the SAW Gallery’s SAW Prize for New Works and was promoted that same year on the Art Gallery of Ontario’s website in an Artist Spotlight.
But when asked about her work, she doesn’t brag about awards and galleries. Instead, she describes the inspiration she draws from observing the world and the joys of reflecting it back through art.
“I’ve recently been focused on telling more about Inuit and our culture,” she said. “My photography is capturing my journey: the things I want to speak about or raise awareness about or just things I want to reflect upon because they’ve touched my life in some way.”
