The light that remains
Greg Girard shows his early photos taken in transit from America to Asia that shaped his aesthetics for nocturnal light in his book, American Stopover.
August 20th, 2025
Greg Girard's photography books of gritty streets and nightscapes inspire film design and fashion houses worldwide.
“After arriving at the airport or Greyhound terminal I would find my way to a hotel or motel room downtown and start photographing.”– Greg Girard.
Review by Beverly Cramp
Night photography requires a special touch. How does one capture the sunless, dark spaces and artificially lit areas to produce something that is relatable to the human eye? Burnaby-raised Greg Girard’s philosophy is to utilize only the light that is available, which usually comes from street lamps, backlit signs, neon signs, and light streaming out of buildings. It makes for surprisingly-coloured images as demonstrated in one of his most recent books, American Stopover (Magenta $100).
Girard left Metro Vancouver at the age of 18 to pursue photography in Asia’s largest cities—Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Okinawa and Hanoi among others for over three decades. He sold his pictures to Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, Elle, Paris Match, Stern and the New York Times Magazine, and became a contributing photographer to National Geographic. He also began publishing photography books including one of his most famous titles, City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City (Watermark, 1993), co-authored with architect Ian Lambot; later revised and republished as City of Darkness Revisited (Watermark, 2014). The two books record the notorious Kowloon Walled City that was, before being torn down, considered to be the most densely populated place in the world with over 35,000 people squeezed into 350 buildings, 12 – 14 floors high, on a single Hong Kong city block. The crowded buildings were built without any regulations or professional considerations. But it worked, especially for poor immigrants to the city who couldn’t afford to live anywhere else.
Man with Cigarette, San Francisco, 1974
Girard moved back to Vancouver in 2011 and continues to publish books such as American Stopover about his time as a young aspiring photographer making his way to Asia via San Francisco and Los Angeles. His first trip overseas was by Philippine freighter, taking 18 days to cross the Pacific in the last of the pre-containerized, general cargo ships. For his later travel, Girard took discounted airline journeys. “These were all-cash trips (it would be years before I got my first credit card)” he says. Girard’s budget-poor journeys included staying in cheap motel rooms or even staying up all night in 24-hour coffee shops or cinemas. “Downtown Los Angeles, at that time, had a number of all-night cinemas showing triple bills for $1.75,” recalls Girard. “Most of the patrons, like myself, were half watching, half sleeping.”
These early trips provided the young Girard with fresh new photographic inspiration. “After arriving at the airport or Greyhound terminal I would find my way to a hotel or motel room downtown and start photographing.” American Stopover captures those days showing the germination of Girard’s early nighttime aesthetic.
Although Girard initially gained fame for his cinematic pictures of the physical and social transformations taking place in China and Asia, his images of what his gallerist, Monty Clarke, calls “nostalgic neon-lit nocturnal scenes from 1970s and early 80s Vancouver” have recently earned new audiences through a collaboration with German fashion designer, Jil Sander. Whole segments of photos from Girard’s Under Vancouver series, to patterns and colours inspired by the images found their way onto clothing ensembles at Sander’s 2025 Spring/Summer collection, including: a vintage car, a room at the Lotus Hotel, a jewelry store window and the Silver Grill Café.
Girard is currently working on series of photographs of working-class Japanese karaoke bars that will also appear in a new book.
Paradise Club, San Francisco, 1982
Night Moves: 9781772142396
American Stopover: 9783982454269
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