Ryan Parker photographed Chris Neilson, a research partner with the BLINC Lab, for the cover of Edify’s May 2025 Innovation issue, Edmonton Is Innovating, and for the feature inside, Augmented Humanity.
The story
Augmented Humanity
Augmented Humanity looks at the BLINC Lab, an interdisciplinary lab using machine learning to push bionic limbs further and build better prostheses for the people who need them. Chris Neilson, one of its research partners, tests the lab’s AI-powered prosthetics. The feature ran in Edify’s seventh annual Innovation issue, with Neilson on the cover.
- Magazine
- Edify
- Issue
- May 2025
- Cover line
- Edmonton Is Innovating
- Ran as
- The cover, the contents page, the Innovation issue’s opening page, and the feature’s opening spread
- Words
- Caitlin Hart
- Art direction
- Kim Larson
- Photographs
- Ryan Parker
As printed
The cover, and the pages.
01Edify, May 2025
The frames
The photographs, before the type.
01The photographs
How it got made
The brief, the room, the frame.
Kim’s brief was simple: “This is in studio and could be VERY COOL. Focus on the arm.” The red Steve Austin tracksuit was her idea. She bought it and had one sleeve hemmed so the arm would show. Chris came in with Michael Rory Dawson, who helps him put the arm on, and we had him in the studio for under two hours.
The blur is in camera. I mixed strobe with continuous light and dragged the shutter: the strobe freezes Chris and gives him definition, and I moved the camera myself to make the motion, which I’ve found is the best way to get blur in camera unless you’re working with a dancer. The blue is continuous light from behind and to the side, so it streaks as the camera moves.
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