Mandy Sham | Canada

Why we love Mandy

There is a timeless elegance to Mandy’s work that seems to span past and future. Her images spark a need for adventure and stoke memories of long summer days in Europe, hot afternoons under the African sun and conjure trips not yet planned. We hope her work inspires you as much as it does the Urth team.

Who is Mandy Sham?

Mandy Sham is a photographer, writer, and part-time explorer based in Toronto, Canada. She traverses the familiar and far-flung in search of people, everyday stories, and good breakfasts.

Her foray into photography began in earnest during a summer sojourn in Hong Kong. Armed with her first novice camera, she revisited the handful of childhood years she spent in the city — what felt, in essence, like an autobiographical act — capturing the inexplicable way she felt tethered to its kaleidoscopic array of sensations, from pineapple buns and rush hours to jasmine-scented shopping malls. She loved and loves it all, and longs to discover the neon signs and pineapple buns of the world. Her adventures have since led her to prayer with a village monk in the Himalayas, breaking fast with Berbers in the Moroccan Sahara, and bush camping in the Namib desert.

Mandy majored in radio and television arts, and currently works in broadcast journalism as an audio engineer and associate producer. She occasionally travels on-air and on paper, reporting from iconic houses along the Mediterranean to the ancestral kitchens of Colombia. Her photographic work, which specializes in travel and gastronomy, is driven by the raw universality of color and emotional nostalgia present in idiosyncrasies of the everyday.