About Orest Semchishen

Orest Semchishen was born in Mundare, Alberta in 1932, and currently lives in Edmonton. A radiologist by profession, Semchishen took up photography initially as a hobby. In the early 1970s, after taking University of Alberta extension classes, he turned to documentary photography, his most important influence being the American photographer Walker Evans. His work has been collected by several public institutions in Canada including, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Edmonton Art Gallery, the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, The Glenbow Museum, The Banff Centre Permanent Collection, Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon. A significant number of his photographs and original negatives are now housed in the National Archives of Canada.