Montreal-based photographer Vladimir Antaki has an eye-opening series titled ‘The Guardians’ in which he captures quietly powerful portraits of shopkeepers in their stores.
Described as a tribute to the “guardians of urban temples”, Antaki traveled to nine cities including Montreal, New York City, Paris, Vienna, Berlin and Amsterdam, photographing nearly 250 people for his series.
His motivation for embarking on this project stemmed from the fact that people these days don’t pay enough attention to their environment; shopkeepers are among the most common groups of people we come into contact with everyday but rarely acknowledge.
For each portrait, Antaki first established a connection with the owner before taking their picture, with the aim of capturing their personality and essence of the place.
Simply shot and surrounded by their goods, each photograph tells a story about the person in front of the camera, quietly going about their lives without fanfare.
Antaki hopes his images will act as a photographic record of the vendors and the spaces they inhabit, which may no longer be around one day.
“These places are sometimes magical, overloaded with elements, colors and stories, guarded by these characters who are sometimes touching, funny, quirky, and at times frightening. The photos that I take are often the only memory that this “Guardian” will have of him/herself in their daily environment. This photo can be the only visual record of the existence of this place, the only photographic memory.”
View more photos from his project here and follow it on Facebook.
[via Trend Hunter, images via Vladimir Antaki]