Local photographer’s haunting Telus Sky image qualifies for World Photographic Cup

After months of lockdowns, closures and cancellations, we’ve started seeing the world and the city we live in a little differently. The truth is, that although we weren’t crazy about crowds before all of this, we’ve gone even crazier without them. Knowing that once busy office buildings and venues are virtually ghost towns has been pretty eerie, as Cochrane photographer, Jacquie Matechuk, captured perfectly back in April.

The photo, which she titled Zip It, is honestly haunting and sheds a totally different light on Calgary’s Telus Sky Building.

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“I was basically by myself in downtown Calgary. I had gone down with the expectation of catching some architectural images and figured there wouldn’t be a lot of traffic,” she told CBC’s Radio Active.

“It literally was apocalyptic. There were no people.”

Matechuk said she took several photos all over the area, but this one was the most impressive. In fact, it’s even “wowed” the folks at The World Photographic Cup!

Since taking the snapshot a month into the pandemic, her photo is among only 17 Canadian submissions to qualify for the international Olympic-type award.

Now, perhaps we’re biased but with a photo like this one, we think that Team Canada might have a chance to take home the gold, for the very first time. How cool would that be?! 

Unfortunately, it’ll be a while (April 19th) until we find out, but we’ll keep you guys updated! Congrats to everyone who made it past nationals – especially Jacquie Matechuk, because as we said, as Albertan’s we’re a tad biased.