Artist Info
Wally Houn
Wally Houn is a photographer, writer, and actor who immigrated to Medicine Hat from China when he was ten years old. He first became interested in photography as a junior high school student, and in the late 1970s, when Houn was living and teaching in Hussar, Alberta, he began exploring documentary photography. He undertook an extensive photographic portrait of the town and its people, and captured intimate shots of daily life in Hussar. These photographs led to a solo exhibition that toured extensively throughout Canada.
Houn participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions between 1974 and 1996, and in visual arts courses at the University of Lethbridge and the University of Oregon. He also attended a number of photographic workshops in the United States and Canada, most notably with Ansel Adams in Carmel, CA and Yosemite National Park, CA. Houn has donated over 3800 photos and negatives of his work to the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
Houn graduated with a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Calgary, and taught English in public schools in Swift Current, SK, Nobleford, AB, Edmonton, AB, Hussar, AB and Strathmore, AB until retiring from teaching in 1996.
Since then, Houn has worked as an actor, with speaking roles in films and TV, and is a member of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists (ACTRA).
