Stuart McCall has won the annual Capture Photography Festival Canada Line competition for his striking shot of colourful construction markings on concrete.

The artwork will be part of the public programming for the 2017 festival, which will include photo-based installations at many stations along the Canada Line. The winner's image is to be installed large scale at the Canada Line King Edward Station and the photographer will be paid a $500 fee.

In the fall, Capture and the Georgia Straight invited photographers from all backgrounds and practices to respond to the theme On and Off the Road. Artists were asked to submit images that considered the conventional road narrative in an unconventional way. 

Capture kicks off its 2017 fest on April 1.

Here is McCall's artist's statement for the Industrioglyphs series:

When I began photographing industrial sites, it was with an eye to architectural design and heroic structural elements. This series of images focuses on specific idiosyncratic details within the landscape of road construction.

During my numerous visits to sites of construction and industrial activity, I find myself drawn to a recurring language of colourful, temporary markings inscribed on cement buttresses, building walls, road surfaces, posts, boulders, trees, etc. Reminiscent of Cuneiform, Elamite, or prehistoric scripts marked on cave walls, these inscriptions pass a message to some future observer, which presumes an understanding of continuum.

In the complex, deadline driven, construction site environment, a simple method of marking is often the only, and certainly the most expedient way to pass on information. With the use of spray paint, chalk, pencils, paint and felt markers, various conventions are evident - geometric representations, coloured symbols, numerals and abbreviated words.

A compelling feature of these marks is their temporary nature, as they mark the transition between permanence and impermanence. Lasting for months, weeks or minutes, they indicate the need for an action to be taken. They are then covered over, sawn through, dug up or otherwise removed from sight. With photography we contrast the temporary nature of the markings with the permanence of the structure and the print.