• Katie Huisman resting in the front window of Initial Gallery during Physical Attraction’s installation process.

  • One of Katie Huiman’s composite cephalometric skull photographs, waiting to be hung.

  • The show’s body of work is not individually titled, instead falling under the umbrella title of the show itself, Physical Attraction. The large piece shown here in the gallery’s window display and on the show’s invite cards is one of Katie Huiman’s primary testing shots, the only image composite shot entirely on film.

  • Katie Huisman preparing her composite cephalometrics skull image for hanging upon the wall of Initial Gallery’s interior

  • An interior detail shot of some of Katie Huisman’s Physical Attraction showing at Initial Gallery. The pieces comprise small black boxes, hand-crafted and hung symmetrically in a smooth straight eye-level line across the gallery’s circumference.

  • Katie Huisman’s artistic statement is captivating and revealing. Beside her printed statement sits the handout cards for the show, which are available in the gallery and online.

  • Katie Huisman stands outside the front door of Initial Gallery on Granville Street, preparing for the final details of hanging the show.

  • A print of the fastest animal on the planet is stitched on to the back of Huisman’s vest. The word cheetah is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning variegated, fitting for a creature that can blend so seamlessly into the wild.

Katie Huisman

Let's get physical.

Katie Huisman inspires me. She’s a multi-talented Vancouver photographer, residing somewhere between a wandering, sun-loving, juicing surfer and a linguistic, human-nature aficionado. Last we spoke, we chatted about how her work is often labeled as being either artistic or scientific, never some of each. I believe we settled on fundamentally artistic, but you will have a chance to ask her yourself at her artist talk this Saturday, February, 22, from 2:00–3:00 p.m. Katie will discuss her photographic exhibit Physical Attraction, currently on display at Initial Gallery until March 8, 2014.

She photographed 50 couples of varying age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. The lengths of their relationships range from two months to 61 years. From these studies, she created composite photographs to compare facial anatomy, paying tribute to practices such as physiognomy and cephalometric analysis. Katie has applied these landmarks of facial analysis, merging the couples’ images to begin her investigation into the unreasoned aspects of human attraction.

I feel lucky. I have been to see the show, and I got to be a part of it. I had the experience of my partner and I being one of her studied pairs (bonus points if you can find me on the gallery walls). I am looking forward to learning more about human attraction at the gallery on Saturday.

Photos by Angela Fama.

See more from Angela Fama.

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February 21, 2014