“Photography was and continues to be my way to express and make sense of the world around me. Working with faculty, staff, and students in this medium in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at UBC for all these years has been a great privilege.” ―Rob Bos, May 2026
We would like to congratulate Rob Bos, who is retiring at the end of May 2026, after 34 years of service as Photo Digital Technician. Rob started in 1991 in this newly created role, in what was then the Fine Arts Department.
Rob moved to Vancouver a few years after graduating from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto. He began his role in the department by purchasing studio lighting equipment and a 4×5 film camera to establish our photo studio, and then started working with Jeff Wall in studio lighting courses. The advent of digital photography prompted the acquisition of more technology, including our first Apple computer equipped with Photoshop for MFA students and an Avid video-editing workstation.
In addition to his analogue and digital photo duties, Rob built and maintained the department’s first website and several subsequent iterations, exploring what was then a brand-new concept: the department’s online web presence. This evolved into two decades of web development and self-taught coding, including the creation of a web-based content management system for the AHVA website.
Over the past three and a half decades, Rob has photo-documented hundreds—if not thousands—of department activities and research outputs. These records in the AHVA archives are among his many lasting legacies in the department.
Rob Bos (right) cooking with Kevin Murphy (centre), former Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture Technician, August 2012. Photo: Andrea Tuele.
Brandon Leung, AHVA Visual Resources Centre’s Curatorial Assistant, reflects:
“I first met Rob in 2016 when I was an undergrad. I was the Darkroom Manager for the UBC Photographic Society student club at the time, and we unfortunately did not have any proper facilities. As I had taken the VISA analogue photography class already, I approached Rob to see if the club could also use the darkroom. Coincidentally, I had also applied for the darkroom assistant Work Learn position, a position I had been eyeing for some time because of my love for film photography. In the end, I was fortunate to get both the position and have the club share the darkroom, a great boon for everyone involved! I’ll always be grateful to Rob and the department for allowing all the pieces to fall into place. Being the darkroom assistant was my first Work Learn position, and I enjoyed my time working with Rob and hearing his reminisces about the changes in photographic practices that happened since he started photography. I even ended up doing my Master’s degree at the same university he went to in Toronto: Toronto Metropolitan University!”
Thank you, Rob, for your many years of dedication and contribution to the department. We wish you all the best in this next chapter!
