(This story is in partnership with Capture Photography Festival)

Capture Photography Festival is Western Canada’s largest celebration of lens-based art. Now in its sixth year, artists’ works will be exhibited at dozens of galleries and other venues throughout Metro Vancouver from April 3 to 30, 2019. In addition to a number of community events, tours, films, and artist’s talks, the public also has the opportunity to vote now in the Georgia Straight and Capture Photography Festival Canada Line Competition.

The winning photograph will be installed on the façade of the King Edward Canada Line Station for six months, from April to September, 2019. The winner of the coveted prize will also see their work featured on the Capture website and in 8,000 copies of the 2019 Capture Magazine, which is distributed throughout the Lower Mainland.

The competition, which is part of a partnership with the Canada Line Art Program and InTransit BC, accepted hundreds of submissions. A jury, including the Capture Photography Festival and the Georgia Straight reviewed all the entries and determined a shortlist of four artists outlined below.

The theme for this year’s competition is “the Anthropocene” derived from the Greek anthropo, meaning “pertaining to human beings”, and cene, meaning new. It refers to the Earth’s most recent geologic epoch, beginning at the end of the Holocene, when the glaciers of the last ice age diminished. The Anthropocene is marked by the significant alteration of the Earth by humans, based on evidence of massive changes to the atmosphere, ecosystems, and landscape through mining, industrialization, agriculture, and the use of fossil fuels and plastics.

For the competition, the jury considered work that addresses current issues around capitalism, power, technology, the environment, and other issues related to the Anthropocene. This is a wide-ranging topic that invited multiple creative approaches and viewpoints. The finalists include artists Andreas Rutkauskas, Desirée Patterson, Monique Motut-Firth, and Sally Buck.

You can see their submissions and cast your ballot here. Even better, by voting for your favourite you will be entered to win a pair of tickets to a special event at Capture Photography Festival in April 2019, plus a $100 gift certificate for printing services at London Drugs Photolab.