Arni Haraldsson
(1958–)
Arni Haraldsson
1958–
Arni Haraldsson (1958– ) is an Icelandic-born Vancouver-based artist and an associate professor of photography at Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver. Haraldsson obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1990 from the University of British Columbia. Through his photography, Haraldsson focuses on capturing aging instances of High Modernist architecture. His artistic practice serves as a means to explore the evolution of architecture, urban planning, and societal values throughout history. His recent works have primarily focused on capturing the fading utopian visions of modernism.
Since the late 1980s, Haraldsson’s photographic endeavors have evolved from exploring the unfulfilled ideals of utopian modernism to placing a greater emphasis on the design and social fabric of cities. He is particularly intrigued by the concept of urban spaces as self-contained entities that encapsulate the defining characteristics of our contemporary societal and economic structures.
Haraldsson’s photographic documentation of buildings points at the importance of architecture as a means of understanding a neighborhood's politics, fate, and overall essence. Haraldsson photographs have been shown in exhibitions both nationally and internationally; he has gained prominence and recognition for his photographs depicting mid-twentieth-century architecture and the urban landscapes of India, Israel/occupied Palestine, South Africa and his native Iceland.