Osman Phillips arrived in Canada in 1991, and moved to Salt Spring Island in 1993. In 2004 he collaborated with two other photographers to produce the highly successful book: "Salt Spring: the people, the place".

His photographs of the natural world, especially in close-up, are well known on the West Coast.

"In my photography, I see the microcosm in nature, as a mandala, a meditation on the fullness and beauty of life, a starting point".