Slightly Lucid

Steve Veilleux

Louis Perreault — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:34:51 +0000

An awkward set of mannequins with cowboy hats and clean dresses warning us that the place is surveilled by camera; a weird looking capsule (spaceship?) on which one can read “Jessica Nordet Yamaska”; a half constructed house in a field; a coloured terrace in the forest: these and other images from Steve Veilleux’s Work in Progress series adds up to create a mysterious décor for a film to be invented.

I discovered the work of Steve Veilleux when he contacted me a year ago, asking if I could help him with his website. I since had the chance to chat with him about his images. I always feel that there is no better way to get to know a body of work than to talk directly to the photographer/artist himself.

Steve Veilleux’s web site is rather sparse for the moment but the two series that are presented show a sensibility for the silenced remnants of intriguing narratives. His Work in Progress series (Projet en cours, in French) shows spaces where time lingers in between events. We are also between genres: fiction and poetry invade the documentation of rural Quebec in order to leave us with a flow of fragmented moments and spaces hardly linked by content. Rather, what seems to be the unifying element is an approach, a distance, a sort of curiosity vis-à-vis the sense of otherness in place.

Steve Veilleux’s photographs will be exhibited at Centre culturel Georges-Vanier, in Montreal, from May 24^th to June 19^th, along with Alexi Hobbs and Jasmin Daigle’s works. The Vernissage is on Thursday the 24th, if I were you, I would go…

The Photographic Image – The Photographic Medium

Aislinn Leggett — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:37:25 +0000

I teach an introductory non-credit photography class, where people come from different walks of life to either learn the technical aspect of photography, how to work their cameras or to challenge their seeing and photographing. There are some assignments, which encourage different ways of thinking when taking a photo and training the eye to see light and nuances. A couple of weeks ago I was asked by one participant why I wasn’t more critical when reviewing the assignments and why I wasn’t saying if a photograph was good or bad. To tell the truth I was taken aback and at that split second I was caught off guard and didn’t know what to answer. The thing is, I think that I am quite critical, even too much so at times.

I came into photography by looking at the “masters of photography” like Bresson, Frank, Arbus and Avedon. I sought out these types of photographers in librairies and book stores, if the internet was as diverse as it is now my photographic attempts and inspirations would probably be very different. In 2001 I bought an Minolta SRT 101 with a pile of film and left for Europe for 6 months, on that trip I decided that I was to become a photographer and so desperately tried to capture the “decisive moment”. Once back, I enrolled in a technical photography program at Dawson college in Montreal. It was there that I dug deeper into the style of street photography, documentary and the world of black and white.

Photography, at this point was changing. Digital photography was growing like a weed. Some embraced it and some despised it. I was learning analog and digital together but treated each very differently. I had a soft spot for the nostalgia, a.k.a the world of black and white by the “masters of photography”. For me the world’s of Klein, Winogrand, Wegge and Frank were the images that I needed to capture to be successful or simply to be a good photographer. I soon created rules for myself, which were: shoot black and white, shoot full frame, push my film for big grain, shoot with a wide angle, get close (Robert Capa “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough”), only print on fiber, selenium tone and never, never crop. I came out of school wanting to be a documentary photographer, wanting to show the reality of life and capture the real. - Then I went to art school and all those rules fell apart. It wasn’t the photography or studio classes that made these rules shatter it was the art history courses that broke down my photographic world as I knew it. I realized that I didn’t start at the beginning of photographic history but I just jumped right in it. And it wasn’t only the visuals, in fact it was less about the photos but more about the theory of photography and “the why?”. To be introduced to a dialog about photography and the photographic medium was I think an existential moment for me. This photographic awakening allowed me to tear apart my photographic rules and walls I had built, which once enabled me to create an image. I was able to look at photography and to accept it’s different roles as a medium.

This morning I read these two articles Why Instagtram is Terrible for Photographers, and why you should use it. from Raw File and Instagram, Hipstamatic and the mobile photography movement from The Telegraph both quite interesting articles about Instagram, Hipstamatic or retro phone photography. I use Hipstamatic because for me it’s playful, a letting go of boundaries. Allen Murabayashi‘s comments on the “any one can do it” capabilities of the photo “app” “. But hasn’t there always been a battle of the “anyone can do it”? When haven’t photographers or artists felt threatened by new techniques or new machines? First it was Kodak with the Brownie camera and there slogan “You push the button, we do the rest.” and now we have camera “apps” on phones with immediate photo sharing possibilites. Apart from technological differences, the Brownie, Instagram and Hipstamatic are quite similar. It used to be art vs. photography. Baudelaire had his opinions about the photographic medium in the late 1850s -

“From that moment onwards, our loathsome society rushed, like Narcissus, to contemplate its trivial image on a metallic plate. A form of lunacy, an extraordinary fanaticism took hold of these new sun-worshippers.” – Charles Baudelaire.

Now the artistic fight seems to be photography vs. photography and this isn’t surprising when the medium is expanding in all kinds of directions. Photography is more than studio portraitists, wedding photography, photo-journalists or nature photography. Although those types of photographers are important, we need to include and also think about the visual artists using photography, artists recording their work through photography and the medium itself being questioned. Photography has become a very broad term, which could have a different significance for different people, including the use of photographic “apps” like Hipstamatic and Instagram. Our way of viewing photos and consuming them has changed drastically as well.

With all this said, being critical when faced with a photographic image or photographic works depends on where and who it’s coming from and the purpose of the photograph. The purpose being quite important. I’m continuously trying to break down walls, to avoid setting myself up with rules and constraints, which hopefully keeps me open minded for all types and styles of photography. I’ve realized that I need photography to stimulate, be it if I’m the photographer or the viewer. Whatever the photo, the subject matter or genre, there needs to be something there. I think Michael Snow describes it best - “Seeing means activating the image in ways other than through looking”

Jacinthe Lessard-L. – La Chambre

Aislinn Leggett — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:37:09 +0000

Jacinthe Lessard-L. is a Montreal based artist who recently showed her new body of work titled La Chambre at Galerie Les Territoires. Walking into the gallery, I was seduced by the simplicity of shape, form and colour, yet the work is far from simple. From what I understand the objects photographed are molds from the interior of different cameras. “La chambre” translates to “the room” and in French “la chambre” is used quite frequently in photographic terms. “La chambre photographique” or “chambre technique de grand format” are terms which refer to large format cameras, “la chambre noir” translates to the darkroom and the inside of traditional cameras can also de referred to as “la chambre”.

These shapes and forms reveal a photographic past. To a photographer these objects look familiar but at the same time they seem foreign, it is as though we are looking at the cameras inside out. These objects are no longer cameras but sculptural artifacts that live through a photograph.

Rediscovering Landscape

Aislinn Leggett — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:27:18 +0000

Joseph Légaré - Les chutes Chaudières, Québec, c.1840. At Library and Archives Canada

I’m currently working on some new work which has brought me to research theory and visual aspects that I never thought I would venture in to. It’s not very spectacular as a subject, it’s actually quite banal. You ready for it? …Landscape.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy landscape photography or for that matter other visual representation of it, it’s just that, as I’ve come to realize, I didn’t fully understand the genre. And what I mean by that is I didn’t recognize the importance of the history attributed to the subject matter and the elements or preconceptions that come with representing landscape.

I started my work and my research simultaneously and since embarking on this new perspective of work, different projects that I’ve been working on have come full circle to coincide with landscape and photographic archives. I love it when that happens! The research I’m mainly focusing on is Canadian landscape and furthermore how people use the land through leisure activity. Three books that have been a base for my research are Picturing the Land: Narrating Territories in Canadian Landscape Art, 1500-1950 by Marylin J. McKay, Beyond Wilderness: The Group of Seven, Canadian Identity and Contemporary Art by John O’Brian and Peter White and Vistas: Artists on the Canadian Pacific Railway by Roger Boulet. I have quickly come to understand that today’s politics, our current way of life and attitude towards the land is deeply rooted in how land was depicted and used in early colonization.

My research on the representation of Canadian landscape is quite interesting because it allows me to understand how land is so carefully shaped and promoted, especially at a time when land is being exploited more and more. Documentation of the land, it’s appearance or how artists deal with portraying it, is essential. Through the work of artists we are able to explore different views and understand our land from a different stand point. - All this to say is that I’m happily revisiting Canadian history and artists.

As much as I’m interested in the historical representation of landscape, I’m very much intrigued by contemporary artists that work with landscape by constructing or altering it. Below are a few artists that deal with landscape in this way. In order: Beate Gutschow creates her landscapes from a bank of images, Andy Goldsworthy temporarily alters the landscape with his sculptures, Laura Plageman, who I recently discovered, works with printed photographs to alter her landscapes and Joan Fontcuberta creates new worlds from computer generated images.

The brownie camera and sharing photographs

Aislinn Leggett — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:12:59 +0000

Happy New Year to you all and all the very best for 2012!

I have a question for you. Did you take any pictures when ringing in the new year? most likely you did or somebody at your party did. I know I did and I know I took a lot and I wasn’t the only one at our little gathering. What was your camera? I was going between an iphone and a Leica M6. It used to be that people took a few snaps a year but now we’ve seemed to gone trigger happy, having an obsession of documenting every second of our life. I recently found these photos of people being photographed with their Brownie cameras and then coincidentally came across the images of Erik Kessels installation at Foam Gallery of what it would look like when printing the amount of images uploaded to Flickr in 24 hours. Photography has come a long way.

I might print the images I took new year’s eve, if I ever get around to it. For now they will stay on the iphone album. It’s become so easy to take pictures. He don’t have to wait for our photographs to be developed and everything has become instantaneous. Cameras are cheaper and smaller and now come with every cell phone we buy, making it easier to upload and share our personal life with the world. It’s become the norm to upload our images and the simplest and easiest way to share our photos with family and friends. I mean, it’s pretty amazing. I still remember my great aunt and uncle having a slide show party to show their family and friends their recent trip photos. The people in the black and white images posted here want to be photographed with their cameras. As I go through my newly found images and flip through the carefully laid out albums, I can’t help but be amazed at how fast our lifestyles have changed and how photography has continued to be a part of it and evolved enormously as a medium itself. Kessels has printed 24 hours of uploaded images to Flickr, imagine a whole years worth of Flickr and Facebook combined?

Erik Kessels installation at Foam Gallery

Happy Holidays, 2011

Aislinn Leggett — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:00:14 +0000

This is my grandfather dressed as ol’ Santy, posing for a Christmas snap with his grandmother. My grandfather is now 95 years old, although less nimble and less of a partier he still gets that twinkle in his eye and is very much alive. So for this holiday season I wish you all to never loose that spark and happiness. Enjoy your family and friends and I’m looking forward to another year with you all.

Alexander Henderson – Winter 1870s

Aislinn Leggett — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:02:45 +0000

Winter hasn’t yet arrived in Montreal. Sure it’s getting a little cold but no snow. I haven’t really been wearing my winter boots yet. Every year winter seems to be arriving a little later and summer stays a little longer. I don’t love winter, on the contrary I’m one of those that usually hibernates and only goes out when necessary. All this to say is that it feels odd this warmish weather. So to revive winter and all it’s whiteness and coldness here are some photographs taken in Montreal in the late 1800s by Alexander Henderson.

Henderson moved to Canada in 1855 from England and started his career as a photographer in 1866. He became known for his landscape photography and was hired as a photographer for the Canadian Pacific Railway to document the construction and the landscape they needed to construct through. Henderson worked around the same time as William Notman and his company, a recognized name in the city and the Country. I was introduced to Henderson a couple of weeks ago and was really excited. His landscapes of Canada have been (to say with lack of better words) an “ah YES” moment. I’m working on a new series and these images have been an inspiration and reference I have been looking for and to add to that I’m looking forward in researching his work further as I’ll be involved in a really interesting project starting in the new year.

Henderson’s work seems to be not as well known as Notman’s work. If somebody asked me to name a Canadian photographer of the 19th century I would no doubt, without hesitation say Notman, but now I think I’m converted and a fan of Henderson’s. I find Henderson’s photography to be more aware of the people and their relationship within the landscape, compared to Notman or I should his son William McFarlane Notman (the company) who also worked on and for the CPR at roughly the same time as Henderson. Maybe this debate is for another post because the images presented fall short of comparisons as I’m attempting to conjure winter in Montreal. - Look at that ice!

Iva Zimova

Aislinn Leggett — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:42:26 +0000

I don’t know many photographers, or I should say people, like Iva Zimova. We have been friends for a while now but I had heard so many stories about Iva before even meeting her that I can’t pinpoint the exact moment we talked or met. I know it was between 2003 and 2005 because I was in the photography program at Dawson, which she had aslo studied at and consequently had the same teachers as I did, hence the stories. I do remember being a little intimidated at first because it was one of the first times I was meeting somebody that made such compelling and honest images. Iva immigrated from former Czechoslovakia in 1982, coming to Montreal and developing her photographic eye. I don’t know when Iva caught the travel bug maybe she was just born with it, regardless her and her cameras have and still capture some of the most interesting places and people.

Iva has a huge body of work. She has traveled around the globe and to many places that I would never dream of going to. Though, whatever the city, village or country she captures the essence of the place and people without judgement. She truly cares about the subjects she photographs. When she recounts her time in some of the places she has visited, there is always this sense of attachement to a family, or particular person that she has spent time with. Her work is her life, a camera constantly around her neck, Iva never stops seeing. I’ve picked some of my favorite images to show here but her website is overloaded with work. The one below makes me think of a Dali-esque painting.

Restoring Photographs

Aislinn Leggett — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:08:31 +0000

still from "Back in the frame" on Guardian UK, August 31, 2011

March 11, 2011, the devastating tsunami hit Japan and killed over 15,000 people and left thousands without homes. I couldn’t imagine then nor can I now, how it would be to experience such a traumatic event. Recently, I came across a documentary on the Guardian website, showing a mass movement of volunteers restoring photographs that were damaged in the diaster. It is a short documentary but very much worth your time.

I work with found photographs, I buy discarded family albums and what it seems is that the photographs take up too much space physically and maybe even emotionally. The images are abandoned, forgotten and probably done willingly. This wasn’t the case for the tsunami survivors. Their personal belongings and their life were scattered and destroyed. The found and restored photographs take on an entire new meaning, they become a physical link to their past, potentially the only object that was rescued and the photos become a reminder of the disaster and survival.

Diane Borsato – The Photograph as Document

Aislinn Leggett — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:21:44 +0000

Mois de la Photo is in full swing. For the next month, Montreal is hosting some stellar exhibits and artists. I’ve had the chance to see some of the exhibits and attend some the artist talks and looking forward to the upcoming events. Last week I caught Diane Borsato‘s talk at Concordia University and was swept away, not necessarily by the work itself although I do very much enjoy it, but by Borsato herself, as a person, an artist and the methodology of her work.

My background in performance art is not that elaborate, I sometimes find it difficult to understand the art form and also find it difficult to find performance artists that I like. My reservations aside, Borsato pulled me into her world of curiosity and creativity.

Borsato’s performances are usually intimate, presenting to small groups of people or simply performing without an audience and to prove or document her work she uses photography. The photographic medium is secondary but without it our visual interpretation of the performance might be quite different. These images are not the most compelling but what becomes important is the story or events that come with the photograph. Borsato’s work emits a love for learning and connection between her and the subject but most of all, I believe, she reveals a desire of connecting with various types of people and the relation that grows from the performance.

The image above is her piece titled Italian lessons. Determined to learn Italian, Borsato immerses herself in situations where she has no choice but to speak Italian. To make matters more complicated, Borsato chooses a subject that she is somewhat unfamiliar with. The lessons become not only learning Italian but also learning a new subject in Italian. The image posted here is herself in Italy learning about bee hives and cultivating honey and obviously being taught in Italian. During her talk she explained this performance and the difficulties of learning a new topic but also having to speak and learn the key words to try and converse in Italian. Her description of the process and the unfolding of the event was so interesting and hilarious. Borsato is quite comedic and this aspect comes out often in her work. The image below is from her performance Artifacts in my Mouth, which was performed at a museum, where she literally inserted various objects into her mouth and experiencing artifacts in an entirely sensorial way. The last image posted is her performance titled Terrestrial/ Celestial. The piece was organized where by day, amateur mycologists where to host amateur astronomers to forage the forest for mushrooms and by night the astronomers where to host the mycologists to search the cosmos. I find this incredibly witty and humorous…..

Most of the time artist talks are good and interesting to actually hear the artist talk and describe their work but Borsato’s talk was great. She explained her work but was engaging, she was like a story teller and I seemed to hang on to every word and she was funny. I guess a sort of small performance in itself. I think I would have liked her work regardless but hearing her talk has engaged me that much more to appreciate and understand her work.

Diane Borsato is exhibiting at Articule till October 9th.