Inaugural Year
The Ryerson Image Arts Alumni Association is thrilled to announce the inaugural inductees into Visionaries: the Image Arts Wall of Fame.
There are over 5000 Image Arts alumni across Canada and around the globe. These first five artists embody the diverse talent that is nurtured in the Image Arts Program as their passionate vision has found international acclaim.
Jeremy Podeswa (School of Image Arts, ’80-’84) is an award-winning feature film and television director who has been nominated four times for Emmy Awards: for HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” “The Pacific” (for which he was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award), and two times for “Game of Thrones.” He has directed for many innovative cable television series and mini-series, including, for HBO, Alan Ball’s “Here and Now”, “True Detective”, The Newsroom”, “True Blood”, “Rome”, “Six Feet Under” and “Carnivale”; for Showtime, “Homeland”, “Ray Donovan”, “The Borgias”, “The Tudors”, “Dexter”, “Weeds”, “The L Word” and “Queer as Folk”; for AMC, “The Walking Dead” and “Rubicon”; for F/X “American Horror Story: Asylum”, “American Horror Story: Coven”, “Tyrant”, “Nip/Tuck” and “The Riches”; and for TNT, the mini-series “Into the West” (produced by Steven Spielberg). Recent credits include the premiere and finale episodes of “Game of Thrones” (Season 7) and two episodes of “Handmaid’s Tale”(Season 2) for MGM/HULU. He has also written and directed three award-winning feature films: “Fugitive Pieces” (Opening Night, Toronto International Film Festival); “The Five Senses” (Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes); and “Eclipse” (Berlin and Sundance). Other credits include the TV movie “After the Harvest” (Lifetime), starring Sam Shepard, winner of the Directors Guild of Canada Award for Best Direction. Upcoming credits include the new series “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”, produced by George Clooney, and a Roger Ailes mini-series for Showtime, starring Russell Crowe and Naomi Watts.
Edward Burtynsky (School of Image Arts, 1982) is one of the world’s most respected contemporary photographers. His depictions of industrialized landscapes are included in the collections of over sixty major museums.
Burtynsky was born in 1955 of Ukrainian heritage in St. Catharines, Ontario. He received his BAA in Photography/ Media Studies from Ryerson University in 1982, and in 1985 founded Toronto Image Works, a darkroom rental facility, custom photo laboratory, digital imaging and new media computer-training centre.
Exhibitions (touring): Anthropocene (2018) organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and National Gallery of Canada; Water (2013) organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art & Contemporary Art Center, Louisiana; Oil (2009) at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.; China (5 year tour); Manufactured Landscapes, National Gallery of Canada; and Breaking Ground, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography.
Burtynsky’s distinctions include the TED Prize, the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts, The Outreach award at the Rencontres d’Arles, the Roloff Beny Book award, and the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award. He sits on the board of directors for CONTACT and The Ryerson Image Centre. In 2006 he became an Officer of the Order of Canada, and recently was named Photo London’s 2018 Master of Photography. He currently holds eight honorary doctorate degrees.
Pia Di Ciaula (School of Image Arts, 1992) is an Italo-Canadian, internationally renowned film and television editor. Her love of independent cinema transported her to work throughout Europe, America, Morocco, South Africa and London, UK, where she resides.
Di Ciaula’s credits include: the feature film Tyrannosaur, by writer/director/actor Paddy Considine, winning 40 awards worldwide; A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant and directed by Stephen Frears; and The Crown, Netflix’s multi-BAFTA, Emmy and Golden Globe winning series, viewed by 96 million households around the world, directed by Emmy winner and three time Oscar nominee Stephen Daldry. Di Ciaula has also collaborated with Oscar winners Hugh Hudson, Kate Winslet and Judi Dench.
Di Ciaula received a Gemini Award nomination for Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story. On her first Canadian/UK co-productions, Intimate Relations and Regeneration, she received two Genie Award nominations. Di Ciaula was BAFTA nominated for Best Editing on The Crown.
Di Ciaula’s film training began at Ryerson Image Arts ‘(92) where she explored still photography and film-making. Despite her love of cameras, she was captivated with picture editing but is also often credited with music editing. Di Ciaula has tutored at the London National Film & Television School, and has given Masterclasses at BAFTA, the Royal Television Society, Royal Holloway, University of London, BECTU, and for the Canadian Cinema Editors.
Di Ciaula latest work includes Hope Gap starring Oscar winner Annette Bening, and Dirt Music starring Garrett Hedlund.
Stephen Bulger (School of Image Arts, 1991) was enrolled in the Stills program at Ryerson’s School of Image Arts from 1986-1991, in the hopes of becoming a photographer who exhibited in galleries. In his second year he started organizing student exhibitions, which led to him being the founding manager of The Ryerson Gallery at 80 Spadina, at the suggestion of Don Snyder, the department’s Chair. After graduating, he worked in the photography department of the Ontario College of Art (now OCADU) as a Technician and worked on the idea of opening his own gallery.
Stephen Bulger Gallery opened in 1995 at 700 Queen Street West; moving to 1026 Queen West in 2014; then to its current location at 1356 Dundas Street West in 2017. Since that time, he has curated over 150 exhibitions; been the representative for numerous Canadian and international photographers; published catalogues and books; participated in many North American and European art fairs; was twice elected President of the Board for the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), Washington, D.C; served two terms on the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board; and served as a Founding member and a Chair of the Advisory Board for Ryerson Image Centre. He is also the instigator and a co-founder of CONTACT, Toronto’s photography festival.
Peter Mettler (School of Image Arts, 1982) creates works that elude categorization, melding intuitive processes with drama, essay, and experiment. Meditations on our world rooted in personal experience, his films reflect the visions and wonder of their characters and audiences alike. His work holds a unique position not only for its innovation within the realm of documentary cinema, but also in new art forms where cinema and other disciplines merge. His films include Picture of Light (1994), Gambling Gods & LSD (2002), Petropolis (2009), and The End of Time (2012), and his collaborators include Atom Egoyan, Bruce McDonald, Robert Lepage, Jim O’Rourke, Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal, and Jeremy Narby. Mettler’s films have been the focus of multiple retrospectives, including at TIFF, BAFICI, Lincoln Centre, Jeu de Paume Paris, and Cinematheque Suisse. His awards include a Genie for Best Documentary, Locarno Film Festival’s La Sarraz Prize, the Grand Prix and Prix du Jeune Publique at Vision Du Reel, and Best Film, Best Cinematography, and Best Writing at Hot Docs. His work has been the subject of two books, Making The Invisible Visible (1995), and Of This Place and Elsewhere: The Films and Photography of Peter Mettler (2006). In 2017, Picture Of Light was selected by TIFF as one of Canada’s Essential 150 Canadian Films.
These first five Visionaries will be inducted into the Wall of Fame at the annual Image Arts Awards Night, Thursday, November 15th, 2018.
