Awards and Achievements
Sharon Tenenbaum
defines herself as an artist working within the medium of photography. The artistic process is paramount in every creation she completes. She always aspires to ‘show reality in a different way’, creating images rather than capturing them. Sharon is constantly challenging herself: whether experimenting with bicycle parts to create composite cityscapes or painting selective overlays onto her images. She is committed to the artistic process of growth and change in the continuous pursuit for novelty.
Sharon was educated as a Civil Engineer. Her love for structures is reflected in a vast body of works that celebrate more than mere architecture, but rather, the Art in Architecture.
As an artist, Sharon has won numerous international photography awards, has been published in esteemed magazines such as National Geographic. As an educator, Sharon has taught group workshops from New York to Melbourne, as well as online. She has a variety of video tutorials and ebooks and is the founder of Talk-&-Learn, a free one-hour weekly zoom session for image critique and creation.
2022 and 2020
Winner of the Black & White Spider Awards for Architectural Category Pro.
Gold Winner for the Subcategory of Architecture - Buildings TIFA - Tokyo Foto Awards 2020
Second Place - Category Architecture TIFA - Tokyo Foto Awards 2020
“Your strength lies in three-dimensional geometric perception and analytical thought”, said the career counsellor when I was about to embark on the journey to build a lifelong career. I was only eighteen at the time and had no idea what life had in store for me, how many turns and bypasses it would take me on. Eager to start my life, I decided on the stable and honourable career path of Civil Engineering. Little did I know how boring and unglamorous it would be. It took another seventeen years before I decided to change course, grab my life by the wheel to turn the ship around. That change led me to a creative and constant unfolding career as a photographic artist. Even though I identify today as an artist and make fun of my nerdy engineering friends, I can’t deny that even though I proclaim myself as a cool artiste, deep inside of me is a geometric loving nerd. Albeit, now I am a creative nerd. Now, wherever I go, I find myself gravitating towards the geometric harmony in shapes, lines and light.
In my eyes, art is not meant to show the obvious. That is why I find so many of my images are created using daytime long exposure photography. The human eye does not perceive reality like a long exposure image. The juxtaposition of eternal versus temporary, the drama of a streaky sky or the elimination of detail to highlight the essence is what fascinates me. I find myself mainly shooting outside, on the constant pursuit for architecturally compelling subjects. On the rare occasion my addiction to modern style architecture takes me indoors as well. Over the years, I have accumulated a collection of indoor images from my travels that have not made their way out of the womb and have remained in the incubation folder in the basement of my hard drive.
2020 happened. Not being able to travel due to the global pandemic, confined to the indoors, I found myself going through my endless bank of images. Then it hit me, why don’t I take my indoors outside. I decided to combine my two passions, geometric spaces and long exposure to create a surreal series taking the inside out. All those interior shots that just didn’t have the right punch can now be reborn. Building upon their backdrop sets the stage for a more complex story once a long exposure sky was integrated. The results are composite stories that portray aesthetic balance in a dreamlike environment creating their own story. What story do you see?
2017
Awarded the Vancity the Art Call for the North Vancouver Branch Art Installation
Bike Art, 2017
Sharon Tenenbaum
Bike Art was created as a way to express my two passions: my awe and admiration for the breathtaking beauty around me and my love for cycling. North Vancouver’s environment is open to all; there is no need to be a professional athlete to enjoy the natural ‘facilities’, just a spark for adventure and an appetite for fresh air.
After reclaiming old bicycle parts from local businesses, I clean, refinish and assemble selected parts to photograph North Vancouver scenes – conceptual depictions of ‘Sea to Sky’. Once the base photograph is complete, it is printed on recycled wood and hand painted to embellish and accentuate seasons and the colourful variety of life and community in North Vancouver.
Horizontally, the scene spans all seasons, with fall, winter and snow sports on the western Cypress Mountain and spring and summer activities on the eastern Seymour Mountain.
Vertically, the scene depicts North Vancouver with the three iconic mountains (Cypress, Grouse and Seymour) providing skiers and snowboarders their snowy paradise to later transform into summer hiking and biking trails. The mountains are the backdrop, transitioning into rolling hills down to the North Shore’s waterfront community and urban landmarks. Along the bottom, the foreground is the Strait of Georgia connecting North Vancouver to Vancouver via the Lions’ Gate Bridge and the Seabus.
2016
Solo exhibition at the Gertrude and Zack Gallery Vancouver, B.C.
2015
These three bridges (Harp, Lute and Lyre bridges), are located in the small town of Hoofddorp (Holland), on the outskirts of Amsterdam were designed by Spanish engineer and architect, Santiago Calatrava.
I wanted to capture all three bridges with a similar theme and as soon as I saw them it was obvious to me that it would be the theme of 'Reflections' as two of the three bridges were majestically situated over a river to form a beautiful reflection. The Harp bridge was the only one in which I decided to do something different and use the traffic lines as the 'reflection' as the symmetry created the perfect balance.
The Lute and Harp bridges were taken as a still shot, however for the Lyre bridge I decided to use a long exposure.
Normally my images celebrate the structure itself that I am photographing, for the Lute bridge I wanted to put the environment in centre stage and let the bridge play supporting actor, let take a step back if only to increase it's presence.
1st Place International Photography Awards, Architecture - Bridges: Musical Reflections, Hoofddorp Bridge Series
My Images on Billboards Across Canada! PainttheCity.org
2014
My Images on Billboards Across Canada!
Honoured to be chosen by Paint the City.org to have my images featured on billboards across Canada (Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto) from Dec. 15, 2014 to Jan. 15, 2015.
CBC Radio Interview about the 'Billboard Project' - Paint the City. Listen at the link below to the fill interview:
This Beautiful pedestrian bridge by Spanish engineer and architect, Santiago Calatrava, was on my wish list for a few years. This March I finally made the time to head down to Redding, California to give it my best shot. I recall watching a documentary on the bridge, the story from conception to completion. How there was so much thought that went into the design, that even details of the the bridge pathway was designed to be made of glass to ensure that direct sunlight would reach the water for the salmon that swims through the river underneath it. I had no clue in advance on how I would depict it, I just knew that I wanted to give it the justice it deserved and to convey in my images that it is an actual sundial. I spent a total of two days at Turtle Bay and made sure to capture the sunrise and sunset moments, but most importantly, I wanted to create a body of work which tells a story. To make sure that each image is a stand alone but together they all complete a bigger picture.
2013
1st Place International Photography Awards, Architecture - Bridges: Sundial Bridge Series
2012
B&W + COLOR Magazine Special Issue Publication, 2012 Single Image Contest Winners: Havana Old and New Wins an Award of Merit
2011
During my trip to Portugal this past April-May I spent 5 days in the city of Port (Portugal’s second largest city) which to my surprise was one of the more enchanting cities I have visited. Oporto (as it is pronounced by the locals) is situated in the north-western coast of Portugal and has a magnificent natural setting on the north bank of the River Douro, just a few miles inland from its opening into the Atlantic Ocean.
A total of six bridges are situated on a 10 km stretch of the river – I was in photography heaven! Not being a morning person, I managed somehow to miss the early morning light and opted for the sunsets rather than the sunrises. On my last morning in Port, my iphone rang at 6 am (thank you Ruth) so I was wide awake, the guilt of not getting up and out with the camera early didn’t let me sink back in to a sweet sleep.
Every time I wake up before the sunrise, tearing myself out of bed in the godforsaken hours of the morning, I tell myself, ‘I better get a great shot to make this worth while!’
When I reached the river I was amazed to find a blanket of fog captured in the valley of the river.
All I can say from this moment on is that I just went crazy with the camera, six bridges all looking so different and mysterious in the fog, which should I tackle first before the sun melts it all away? I guess I chose right with what I personally found to be most photogenic, white on white.
All I can say from here is that, yes, that early morning rise was very worth while!
1st Place International Photography Awards, Architecture - Bridges: Oporto Bridges Series
Photographing wind farms was on my ‘To Do’ photography list, so when I planned my trip to Portugal I was happy to find out that wind farms are spotted all over the country on mountaintops.
Although I kept seeing them from the bus and train, I hadn’t rented a car and therefore thought that my wind farms would have to wait for another occasion. On the last stretch of my two weeks in Portugal, I headed down south to the Algarve region for some R & R, but laying on the beach I saw the clouds roll in and I just couldn’t let this opportunity pass. I packed my stuff off the beach and headed to the nearest car rental place and headed to the mountains.
3rd Place International Photography Awards, Architecture - Industrial: Algarve Wind Farm Series
2009
Publication in National Geographic - Special Issue: 'Your Shot'
2008
1st Place International Photography Awards, Architecture - Bridges: Capilano Suspension Bridge