Olena Sullivan (olena@photolena.ca)

Olena Sullivan is a Toronto-based graphic designer and photographer with a great love for the urban landscape. Her work explores the aesthetic of wabi-sabi, that all things expose their true beauty once they have succumbed to time and the elements. Photographing sites in their time of decay and decline and displaying these photos along with their history, her aim is to show the beauty in the forgotten while educating the public about these important pieces of our architectural history.

“On every excursion, I shoot only what I see, trying to interact as little as possible with my environment. My aim is to document the location within its decay timeline, leaving only footprints in the debris.”

Olena is a founding member of the Shadow Collective – a photography collaborative devoted to the exploration and exhibition of forgotten spaces – the Hangman7 collective, photo editor for Heritage Toronto, and Chair of the Programming Committee for the Hang Man Gallery.