Hood Haunting
Solo Exhibition
April 11 – 26, 2025
Parker Street Gallery
102 – 1000 Parker Street, Vancouver BC
Louise Francis-Smith has been undertaking a multi-decade project documenting the Strathcona neighborhood where she lives, with special attention given to Vancouver’s historical Chinatown area. During this time, Chinatown has been physically in decline and threatened by encroaching development. Part anthropological study, part classic street photography, Francis-Smith tells the story of this place through the people who live, work and shop here and the sidewalks, streets and small shops where they move, gather and interact.
Sensitive and empathetic, her photographs achieve their resonance through a complete immersion in her project. Over time, she has mastered the expression of a personality through a small gesture or a bit of clothing. Recent photographs show figures from behind, waist down, reducing visual cues and gestures to the minimum required to tell the story and reveal the personality of the subject. Always aware of the socio-economic conditions of her subjects, she looks closely but unjudgementally, reflecting on life in the community from an insider’s perspective.
Rituals Exhibition with Broad Magazine
Group Exhibition
Dec 9, 2023 – Jan 12, 2024
Gallery 881
881 East Hastings, Vancouver BC
Explore the power of daily habits and rituals, beyond the confines of religion. Rituals have the ability to ground us and give us a sense of stability and routine in our daily lives. Gallery 881 invites you to the opening of “Rituals”. Artwork that captures the beauty and significance of these daily practices, and how they can provide comfort and strength even in the midst of chaos and uncertainty. This exhibit celebrates the power of daily rituals and showcases the sense of community and connection that they can bring to our lives. This exhibition aims to inspire viewers to reflect on their own daily habits and find meaning in the simple moments of their lives.
New Series: Market
Eastside Culture Crawl 2022
November 17th to 20th
Parker Street Studios
108 – 1000 Parker Street, Vancouver BC
Street photography telling a story of people who live, work and shop at a Vancouver landmark. Works show an expression of the personality by reducing visual cues.
Holding On
Gregory Geipel & Lousie Francis-Smith
June 21st to July 23rd
Pendulum Gallery
885 West Georgia Street, Vancouver BC
Two Vancouver photographers reflect on places in the City that are part of an Old Vancouver now threatened by a rapidly evolving New Vancouver.
Reflection – Vancouver’s Chinatown, a tribute
Capture Photography Festival
April 3rd to May 3rd
Fine Art Framing
Studio 100 – 1000 Parker Street, Vancouver BC
Hours: Weekdays 10am-5pm
We Will Buy Your Dreams, 2019
April 12th to 27th
Opening Reception: Friday April 12th 6-9pm
Artist Talk: Saturday April 20th 1pm
Studio 884
884 East Georgia, Vancouver BC
Hours: 12-6pm (Fri, Sat, Sun) or by appointment
Contact: 604 813-2700
Triptych works at Vancouver International Dance Festival, 2018
VIDF is an inclusive festival that presents performances and workshops by diverse contemporary dance artists from Vancouver, Canada, and abroad.
Louise Francis-Smith’s triptych works called Walkway, Teal, For Lease and Haircut, were created and installed in the exhibit, Fugitive Streets, at 2018 International Dance Festival. It was exhibited alongside works by artists Richard Tetrault and Esther Rausenberg in Roundhouse Exhibition Hall, Vancouver BC.
Interview with SCOUT VANCOUVER Magazine, 2017
Documenting Decades with Vancouver Street Photographer Louise Francis-Smith
Street photographer Louise Francis-Smith moved to Strathcona in 1980 and has had her “heart opened by and lens focused on” the buildings and people of old Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside ever since. She continues to be compelled by the dichotomy of beauty and poverty in these East Van neighbourhoods — a fact you can see for yourselves in her studio during the Eastside Culture Crawl, November 16-19 (1000 Parker St, Studio #108)…
Read the full interview: scoutmagazine.ca
Australian and International Photography 2017
Photography from the 19th and 20th centuries
Collectors’ List No. 185 2016
Louise Francis-Smith’s two photo works, Resting On Bi- cycle Laneway (Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2015/2016), and Hmong Festival (Luang Prabang, Laos, 2015/2016), are included in this exhibition in Sydney Australia. The show runs from Dec. 3 2016 to Feb. 11 2017 at Josef Lebovic Gallery.
Website: joseflebovicgallery.com
Download exhibition catalogue PDF
SWEEP – Artist book coming soon
It is in its prototype stage. SWEEP features a selection of photographs from an ongoing body of work in colour, 1980 – 2015 of Louise Francis-Smiths portrait of Chinatown in transition and at the threshold. Edited and designed by Chick Rice. Stay tuned…
CAPTURE PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL 2016
Louise Francis-Smith is selected with her solo exhibition in 2016 Capture Photography Festival in Vancouver BC. Her show is titled Light and the Social Order. It is curated by Ewan McNeil and featured in Covan02 Art Gallery in Vancouver’s Gastown.
In the 1960s, Vancouver’s Chinatown organized against the city’s slum clearance and freeway plans. A freeway would have been a concrete knife cut through the heart of Chinatown, inducing the collapse of its social structure.
Once again, Chinatown is undergoing dramatic physical and social change. The colour and fabric of this historic neighbourhood are fading. Traditional businesses are closing at exponential rates to be replaced by cafes, skateboard shops, upscale restaurants, and art galleries. Signage everywhere promotes new condo developments.
In Light and the Social Order, Louise Francis-Smith sees an elderly population and a way of life passing.
More info. Capture Photography Festival website
WORKING WORLD Exhibition and Publication, 2012
From a community photography project, THIS IS EAST VAN, 2011
A Book published for a celebration of the progressive community that is East Van demonstrating diversity, people, art, design, food and architecture through community art.
DIVERSE Magazine 2010 Winter Edition
Louise Francis-Smith and her photographs were featured in the Vancouver magazine DIVERSE, in an article called ‘Old Chinatown and its legacy for 30 years’.