Photo by Stephen Uhraney 2025 All Rights Reserved – The Chalkboard Project
When you set out on a documentary project, there is no road map. The first steps are often small, cautious and guided by nothing more than instinct. For me, The Chalkboard Project began with the search for a story that felt necessary, something that wasn’t just about making pictures, but about saying something that mattered. A self assigned project has no safety net. There is no editor waiting on the other end, no budget tucked away. It’s just you, your camera, and the hope that the story you’ve chosen is worth the effort.
With that in mind, I reached out to Amplis Foto. It wasn’t planned weeks in advance or dressed up in a polished pitch; it was simply a cold call, actually an email. That single decision to make contact became the first break in moving the work forward. It reminded me that sometimes, opportunity doesn’t come with an invitation, you have to step into it. Their support gave the project a nod, validation, and a push of momentum.
I’ve also been fortunate to have Harman Ilford Film join in. To know that a company whose film stock has been a cornerstone in photography for generations and believed in this project added a layer of weight to the work. There’s something about loading a roll of Ilford, knowing that it’s part of a tradition stretching back decades, that connects you to every other photographer who came before. Their support has been as much about history and continuity as it has been about materials.
Documentary work, when it is honest, doesn’t always serve the photographer first. The hope is that the images resonate outwardly, that they meet the public in a way that feels urgent, reflective, or necessary. Finding a story worth telling means believing that it carries more than personal meaning. It’s about finding the point where your vision meets public relevance, and staying committed, even when the work is uncertain.
This project is still unfolding, but already it has shown me that belief in the work itself is the first step to bringing others along. Support doesn’t arrive by waiting; it comes when you put yourself into the unknown and risk the rejection on the other end of a phone call or email. I’m grateful to Amplis Foto and Harman Ilford Film for joining me on this project. And I’m reminded again, that the projects that matter most are the ones you believe in deeply enough to begin, even before anyone else sees what you see.
If you would like to view the work and are in Toronto come by the ProFusion Expo November 5th & 6th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. You can register for free tickets at https://profusionexpo.com/
Photojournalism is documentary photography with a purpose.
–W. Eugene Smith
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen Uhraney is an award-winning Canadian photojournalist and documentary photographer whose work looks beyond the surface to capture the essence of life. In 2024, he became the only Canadian ever to win the International Association of Fire Fighters Media Award for On Duty, his four-month immersion with Fire Station 104 in Port Credit. He was named Mississauga’s Visual Artist of the Year in 2023 and received the 2024 Heritage Mississauga Modern Heritage Award for his long-term documentation of Port Credit. His acclaimed projects include Life in the Marsh, a documentary on migrant farm workers in the Holland Marsh featured in the 2013 Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, alongside five solo exhibitions. A former staff photographer with the Toronto Sun and a current contributing photographer with Canadian Press Images. His work has been featured on CBC’s local and national newscasts, and continues to resonate locally, nationally, and internationally. This fall, Uhraney will be teaching at George Brown College and Visual Arts Mississauga, sharing his immersive approach to documentary photography with a new generation of artists.
