FAQ
Questions & answers
Straightforward answers to the questions we hear most often. If something is missing, search the full set below or use the contact page.
What is Portrait of Canada?
A national portrait and voice record. People sit for a professional portrait and answer one shared question, and that becomes part of a lasting public record built on clear consent and archive-ready standards. One day, one question, one record.
Why does this exist?
To document people honestly, faces and voices, in a way that is true to the craft from start to finish. It also answers the moment we are in. With generative AI everywhere, it is getting hard to know what is real, and a photograph is light hitting a sensor at a real moment. Content credentials let you trace the file: taken on this day, by this person, edited in the open. One person cannot build a record like that, so it starts with a community of photographers building it together.
What is happening in 2026, and what is 2027?
2026 is the building year: a smaller, photographer-led proof of concept, not a mass public capture. Photographers step out from behind the camera first, each contributing a self-portrait and two short recorded answers, which tests the story, the workflow, and the consent process. The archive itself begins July 1, 2027, day one, when photographers start photographing the wider public, all answering the one question the cohort has chosen. For now it is one capture day a year.
What exactly are photographers asked to do in 2026?
Three things: one self-portrait, shot however you like; a short recorded answer to “What do you love about being a photographer?”; and a short recorded answer to “If you could ask all Canadians one question, what would it be?” That is the whole ask for 2026. Photographing other people comes with the 2027 capture, not this year.
Who is involved, and can I take part?
The 2026 cohort is working professional photographers, with trusted collaborators helping build it: governance, funding, legal advice, local hubs, web and IT. The record grows by invitation as it goes, so there is no open public sign-up yet. If you would like to be considered, use the join form and leave a note. We review submissions periodically and get back to people, sometimes with a quick call.
How do consent and privacy work?
Consent comes first, at every stage. Nothing is public by default: you choose what you share, sign a release, and see a proof before anything is published. Your name can appear in full, as initials, or fully anonymous, and you can take your portrait and record off the website and out of the archive at any time, for any reason. When you photograph other people, every subject gives their own consent and model release.
What happens to all the photographs?
They live on the public website and a growing archive, open for anyone to explore: the portraits, the one-question answers, and the geography of who answered what. Over the years that record becomes a resource for the public, historians, and institutions. Strong work from a given year could be voted into a printed book.
Is this a business? Who is behind it?
It is a civic project, nonprofit first. The honest belief is that art made for its own sake is better art, so the core stays nonprofit: a collective of Canadian photographers keeping the craft alive and leaving something for the next generation. It was started by Cedric Swaneck, a Toronto photographer, and it is built with the photographers who join. The benefit is being part of the record and the network, not money.
What about French, Indigenous languages, and other languages?
The record runs in English and French. The French site is a working translation while a francophone advisor settles the wording, and participants' recorded words always stay in the language they were spoken in. Indigenous languages are the next conversation we want to have, Inuktitut, Cree, and Dene first, and through consultation. Other languages widely spoken in Canada, Mandarin among them, can follow over time. None of it happens all at once. The source record is captured and documented in English, so each new language can be added carefully, without rebuilding the archive.
How can I help?
If you are a photographer, you can ask to take part in the 2026 proof of concept through the join form. If you are an advisor, institution, or potential partner, you can start a conversation: the project needs help with funding, governance, education outreach, and setting up local hubs across the country.
More questions?
Search the full set of answers. If you do not find it, send your question right here and we will get back to you.
A note: some answers describe where the project is heading and are still being finalized, including a legal review. Nothing here is final until that is done. If you have a question we have not covered, send it along.
For example: 2027, invitations, nonprofit, my name, can I edit photos.
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Ready to take part?
If you are a photographer interested in the 2026 proof of concept, or you would like to start a conversation as an advisor or partner, the contact page is the right place to begin.