The Canadian Mosaic Project

[Image source: Canadian Mosiac Facebook]

 Tim Van Horn, a photographer, is making a massive Canadian flag using pictures he takes of the Country’s people

 A photographer going up to strangers (who are residents of a particular geographic area) and asking them for a photo and maybe their stories that they’d like to share… wait a minute doesn’t this sound like Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York? The basic resemblance between the two projects is undeniable. However, the Canadian Mosaic is different in terms of objectives and execution. It is Tim Van Horn’s original concept, on which he has been working on since pre-HONY times. This artist has been traveling around Canada for his quest of shooting and collecting portraits or random Canadians as pieces for his giant maple-leaf bearing mosaic flag to celebrate the 150th Canada Day.

"The 150th birthday is a great opportunity to unite us”, said Van Horn earlier this month in a statement.
The photographer laid foundations to this project back in October 2008. Till date, he has collected around forty thousand (40,000) portraits for the project! The numbers are expected to reach a whopping 54,000 in the next two years! Van Horn frequently posts updates and stories related to the project on the Canadian Mosaic official Facebook community page.

[Image source: Canadian Mosaic website]

Tim Van Horn originally intended to take photographs of people from all sorts of diverse backgrounds; in order to include and represent all occupations, fields, classes, ethnicities and groups in general. So far he has stayed true to this objective. Canada is a vast country with a population of about 35 million people, which means that the feat must’ve not been less than a serious challenge for him.

[Image source: Canadian Mosaic website]

The enormous outdoor flag is said to be completed by and unveiled on July 1, 2015. It will totally comprises of ‘portraits reflecting the value, ideals and scenery that unite Canada’, according to CBC News. The display location (most probably a national museum) is still undecided.

The Canadian Mosaic project also plans to publish a book titled ‘A New Canada’, that’d feature 150 photo spreads, inspirations stories & quotes collected from artists, writers and everyday people from all across Canada. An online experience website (see the concept image below) is also under way, which will host an interactive mosaic exploring Canada and its people.

Source: CBC News Canada