Michelle Leone Huisman is an award-winning Canadian photo-based artist and community advocate based in Vancouver. Her work explores the intersection of memory, environmental awareness, and social connection. A graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University (BFA Photo Arts, 1995/96) and Emily Carr University of Art + Design (Photographic Arts, 2009–10), Huisman uses historic and alternative processes, including gum bichromate over palladium, to create richly layered images that emphasize materiality and visual storytelling.
Her recent series Vapes & Butts investigates contemporary smoking culture through macro photography and 19th-century printing techniques, offering a poetic, critical lens on consumption, waste, and ritual in public and private spaces. This body of work reflects her broader interest in how everyday objects reveal social and environmental narratives.
Huisman has exhibited in Canada, the United States, and Europe, with solo and group exhibitions in Vancouver, Toronto, Barcelona, and beyond. A committed community advocate, she has led public art initiatives and serves on local advisory and arts boards. She is currently a resident artist at the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO), continuing to expand her practice at the intersection of photographic history and contemporary relevance.
