photoED Magazine - FALL 2024 - TIME

FALL 2024

THE TIME ISSUE

© André Costantini

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NICO GLAUDE Sudbury, ON No time like the....

“An installation dealing with time and nostalgia that I leave behind once photographed to fade away and decay due to weather and time.”

IG: @nicoglaude

CONTENTS 9

RESOURCES WE LOVE

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SCARBOROUGH MADE: COMMUNITY STORYTELLING by Sid Naidu

SYLVIA GALBRAITH: WHAT TIME IS THIS PLACE? An interview by Rita Godlevskis

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FOUR SEASONS: PHOTO PHENOLOGY A poetry inspired collection from our creative community

WADE COMER: LAYERED TIME

by Cece M. Scott

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ARIANNE CLÉMENT: AGING, BEAUTIFULLY

by Alan Bulley

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BRET CULP: SOLARGRAPHY AND THE BEAUTY OF IMPERMANENCE

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JUNE CLARK AND CHRISTINA LESLIE: HISTORY, MEMORY, SUGAR, RUST. In conversation with Craig D’Arville

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ZINNIA NAQVI: TIME AFTER TIME

by Darren Pottie

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THE GALLERY Submissions by our readers

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PORTFOLIO Featuring: Daphne Faye Boxill, Elsa Hashemi, Lucy Lu, Farah Al Amin, Julianna D’Intino, Elizabeth Siegfried, and Catherine Page

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THE MOUNTAIN LEGACY PROJECT: FOLLOWING FOOTSTEPS FROM THE PAST

by Cassandra Spires

THANK YOU OUR PHOTO COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Professional Photographers of Canada Photographes professionnels du Canada

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE PERKS OF PATRONAGE!

THESE AMAZING PEOPLE SUPPORT US AS PATRONS!

8×10 GLASS PLATE VIPS

Lori Ryerson + Ann Piché 4×5 LARGE FORMAT OFFICIAL PATRONS Judith Cole Valerie Lancia Ian McKenzie Mark Walton Alan Bulley Conan Stark James Carey Lauder Patricia Parsons Haughland Media Trish Kozubski AIH Studios Leah Mowers David Brandy Theresa McCuan Amanda Devison Toni Skokovic Ken Udle Jim Crawford Collin J Orthner M-C Shanahan Jenn Pyles Czesia Czyczyro Lowman Patricia Lanctôt Jeff Baine CB Campbell S. Maria Brandt Shelagh Howard Jennifer Gilbert Ross Stockwell Vera Saltzman John Honek

120 OFFICIAL PATRONS Gerry Stone Anonymous Katherine Childs hckygrlphoto Susan Kerr Christine Goodyear David Williams Laura Jones Victoria Prevot Skip Dean Vitalii Sovhyra Marc Delledonne Anaïs Are Shelly Priest Henry Vanderspek Sparkplug Coffee Tim Rahrer Terry Hughes Gonzalo Antonio Oré Del Carpio Jonathan Stuart Jude Marion Herb Theriault Simon Ménard E McDonough Troy Glover E Ross Bradley Bonnie Baker Ian Brunt Lisa Murzin Christine Alic Nancy Stirpe

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35MM OFFICIAL PATRONS Jason Cooper Akemi Matsubuchi Jason Machinski Melanie Scaife Steve Simon Ruth Bergen Braun Blork Robert Royer David J. Kenny Ariela Badenas Loretta Meyer Sid Naidu Michelle Markatos Carey Shaw Emma Juliette Sherland Wally Rae Leah Murray Micheline Godbout Allan Cameron Kerri-Jo Stewart Gurudayal Khalsa Todd McLellan Tracey Halladay Mandy Klein Danielle Denis Gladys Lou Albert Bedward Frank Myers Gerald Wolfe Jack McCaffrey Mary Kyd Micah Klein Rob & Nadia Lucy Lopez Donna McFarlane Julie B Thomas Brasch Xiatong Cai Nozomi Kamei Melissa Kristensen-Smith Jennifer King Brian O'Rourke Daniel Araujo James Lait Tanja Tiziana AMP Jody Miller Raymond Fragapane Mike Walmsley Carol How Nathan Griffiths Phi Doan Kat Tancock Petar Petrovski Daphne Faye Boxill Michael Lepine

EDITOR’S NOTE

Photo by Margaret Mulligan

DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”

— Dorothea Lange

PHOTOED MAGAZINE IS 100% MADE IN CANADA! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

WHEN PHOTOGRAPHS WERE A NEW INVENTION viewers took them at face value. Today’s astute audiences must analyze images, questioning context, intent, and timeline to draw conclusions, all in a matter of seconds.

This analysis may not be accurate, but often it’s all we have time for before moving along to the next image presented in front of us.

The artists in this edition have produced time-bending works that ask viewers for more. The payoff is not only a visual reward, but also the gift of an idea when considering one’s own future recordings.

Sylvia Galbraith records room-size camera obscura images with such clarity; her work is a time-blending puzzle. Bret Culp uses the same tool, a pinhole camera, to create a single image recording: the passage of time over days, weeks, and months. Zinnia Naqvi’s art practice embraces 1980s images from her family albums to question colonial influence and (re)present her experience to new audiences — perhaps relating to viewers’ own experiences and influencing recollections of whatever a “Canadian experience” means to them.

WWW.PHOTOED.CA @photoedmagazine PhotoED Magazine is published 3×/year, SPRING, FALL, & WINTER. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40634032

I’m especially excited to present an interview

by Craig D’Arville featuring June Clark and Christina Leslie. These artists’ works are thoughtfully crafted and loaded with immeasurable layers of history, family, love, struggle, and contemplation in every visual they thoughtfully present. I hope you can afford to make the time for these works, ideas, and more.

Looking ahead, our Winter 2024 edition will celebrate COLOUR and photography. Not only are colours some of the most fun and joyful elements to explore in photography, but they can also hold incredible significance as nostalgic triggers and symbols for social change. If your work helps viewers see colour in a new, significant way, find out more about making a submission on our website.

Follow us on Instagram, Patreon, and Facebook, and sign up for our e-newsletter to keep up with all of our adventures!

Your editor, Rita Godlevskis

FALL 2024 ISSUE #71 ISSN 1708-282X

EDITOR/PUBLISHER ART DIRECTOR

PhotoED Magazine 2100 Bloor St. West, Suite 6218 Toronto, ON M6S 5A5

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

+ FIND OUR DIGITAL REPLICA EDITIONS ON COPY EDITOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT COVER IMAGE

Rita Godlevskis /rita@photoed.ca Ruth Alves Alan Bulley Craig D’Arville Sid Naidu Darren Pottie Cece M. Scott Cassandra Spires Deborah Cooper Marie Louise Moutafchieva

By Bret Culp “183 Sunsets Over Georgian Bay (2023.07.21 – 2023.12.21), Ontario”

This issue was made possible with the assistance of the Government of Canada, and the Ontario Arts Council.

CURATORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Tobi Asmoucha, Patricia Ellah, Anthony Gebrehiwot, John Healey, Jonathan Hobin, Vicki Hoysa, Pam Lau, Peppa Martin, Eric Stewart, Mark Walton.

Has it been that long?

Has it been a while since you experimented with new equipment or shot with film? Has photo lethargy mushroomed? Fear not. The Photographic Historical Society of Canada hosts year-round pre-owned equipment and accessory events guaranteed to make any project affordable and unique.

Check out the Fall Camera Fair (October 20, 2024) or our website for other sensational upcoming events.

www.phsc.ca

LOOKING TO LEARN?

FREEG IN

N SHIPPI DA N CA A

GET THE GUIDE The photoED GUIDE to Photography is a 128-page magazine-format learning and teaching resource. The GUIDE provides a quick start to basic tools & techniques, and ideas for new explorations.

New volcanic movement constantly changing Iceland’s ancient terrain.

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TICK TOCK! A FEW THINGS WE THINK YOU SHOULD MAKE TIME FOR

HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: TIME MACHINE

SKRP WATCHES

20 SECONDS MAGAZINE

Text by James Attlee, Geoffrey Batchen, and more

SKRP (pronounced “scrap”) is an Ontario-based small business that we have fallen in love with! Working with recycled scrap materials, they handcraft super stylish new products that are really, really cool. While we adore their recycled skateboard sunglasses and billboard material tote bags, it’s their watches that we are making time for now.

If you’re feeling like it’s time for something new, check out 20 Seconds Magazine. 20 Seconds is a print-only, reader-supported magazine founded by a Canadian journalist based in Berlin.

The publication features photography, long-form journalism, poetry, interviews, experimental music, and more.

The elements of photography are simple: light, time, and a light-sensitive surface (usually, but not always, in a dark box). For over 50 years, Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto has worked those basic elements like a wizard. He explores the qualities of light and time like few other photographers, and this book, a compilation of the images in a major retrospective of the same name, is a testament to his skill. Also included are essays on Hiroshi’s work and contributions to photography.

Whether he is photographing waves on seascapes around the world, experimenting with colour, or recording a feature-length movie on a single piece of film, Hiroshi’s conceptual art will make you reflect on what it means to practise the art of alchemy with light and time. - Alan Bulley Hardcover, 2024, 216 pages, $87.

Hatje Cantz Verlag Available from online retailers

Manufacturers, shops, brands, and distributors donate the raw materials for these wooden watches from skateboards deemed unrideable. Each watch is one-of-a-kind. This little pop-of-colour on your wrist will not only keep you on time for your next photo shoot, but also help you to arrive in style!

skrp.ca

The name 20 Seconds grew out of an ironic take on the state of cultural journalism.

The team felt that much of what they saw in general media was created to be processed and released again in short periods of time.

Their publication is created so that each piece of content and engagement with the magazine takes much longer and requires repeat visits to enjoy its full worth. Their mission statement says they are “built by and for designers, writers and photographers who feel they’re not being challenged enough by what they’re reading and seeing,” and they are looking to prove that “print is not dead and neither is honesty or independence.”

Primarily distributed in Europe, 20 Seconds is available in Canada by ordering online from our friends at Issues Magazine shop in Toronto.

20secondsmag.com issuesmagshop.com 9 photoED

MANAGING YOUR TIME Productive? Focused? Calm?

How’s your attention span?

Chris Bailey is a Canadian author and speaker obsessed with productivity. His books offer numerous ways not only to get more done, but also to think strategically about directing our energies, finding focus, and navigating towards calm. His books offer readers fresh new ways to think about, and traverse productivity.

Chris’ books, The Productivity Project, How to Calm Your Mind, and Hyperfocus are available as hard copies from public libraries across Canada or for purchase online through indigo.ca, as well as in audiobook formats (on various platforms) for the multitaskers among us.

From across the pond, poet and creative coach Mark McGuinness has written Time Management for Creative People, a free, short PDF download with a few quick tips to help you get organized. It’s from 2007, so a few references (like keeping up with your Blackberry) may be a little dated, but you can still get great value from his general ideas. We like that Mark focuses on the uniqueness of work and life balance for creative folks. Topics include finding the method in your creative madness, getting in the right state of mind for focused work, and minimizing interruptions and distractions.

Free PDF ebook: dl.bookfunnel.com/d5v9towgc3f lateralaction.com

CAMERON D E V E L O P M E N T C O R P O R AT I O N

SCARBOROUGH MADE: CELEBRATING 5 YEARS OF COMMUNITY STORYTELLING

BY SID NAIDU SCARBOROUGH MADE (SM) IS A SOCIAL IMPACT ORGANIZATION that champions documentary storytelling through photography and filmmaking in Toronto’s East. Co-founded by Alex Narvaez and Sid Naidu in 2019, the collective aims to shift how underserved communities are portrayed in the media and support BIPOC youth artists in pursuing careers in the creative industries.

As professional artists, Alex and Sid have produced storytelling and community-building projects both locally and internationally for over ten years, working with large brands, non-profit organizations, and government institutions to champion storytelling around culture and change.

Their kinship and bond over their common experiences of growing up in Scarborough sparked an interest in contributing to their community as artists. They saw an opportunity to use their storytelling skills to highlight local people, places, and cultures by creating SM. TOP: A series of portraits from the first set of stories produced for Scarborough Made (SM) in 2019.

ABOVE: The SM - Resilience public art installation at Toronto Public Library’s Cedarbrae Branch in 2021.

INSET: SM founders Sid Naidu + Alex Narvaez.

As the organization celebrates five years of programming, co-founders Alex and Sid reflect on what they have accomplished.

Alex: While Scarborough has always been a large cultural contributor to Toronto, it hasn’t always been positively portrayed in traditional media. If you’re from here, you know that it is a place of resilience. It’s where many immigrant families have gotten a second chance and created opportunities to do better for themselves. photoED 12

Sid: Alex knows this story firsthand as a refugee who came with his family from El Salvador, and my family has a similar story of migration coming from the Middle East. SM started as we looked to document and share more local stories of identity, resilience, grit, and perseverance.

“We want to encourage communities across Canada and beyond to take control of their own narratives and tell their own stories that celebrate the everyday heroes of their local neighbourhoods.”

— Alex Narvaez

Alex: It’s a beautiful thing to see the evolution of something that we started as a grassroots arts project turn into something that became so much bigger for the wider community. This project really started as a way to give back.

Sid: When we started SM, there wasn’t a blueprint for what we were trying to accomplish. Drawing from our lived experiences of being raised in Scarborough, we formed the foundational pillars of the project over time to focus on documentary storytelling, creative youth mentorships, and public art.

Sid: In our founding year, we created the first original 26 SM stories from our own pockets and launched a crowdfunding campaign that raised just over $3000 to produce our first public art installation at Nuit Blanche Toronto. Year one gave us the proof of concept that this was something that people in Scarborough wanted to see.

ABOVE: Behind the scenes, Alex Narvaez documents author Natasha Ramoutar at Scarborough Bluffs in 2019.

BELOW: People gather at the SM public art installation for Nuit Blanche in the Scarborough Civic Centre Loading Docks in 2019.

Alex: Being able to present our own photography and video work to our local community was already a huge accomplishment and it was something we felt great about but we knew there was more that we needed to do to carry the idea forward.

Sid: For us this meant looking at how we could build capacity in our neighbourhoods by enabling future generations with the tools and skills to be storytellers for their communities. We paused in 2020 during the pandemic and then launched our first mentorship program in 2021 with funding from the City of Toronto and Toronto Arts Council. We learned a lot from our first youth mentorship pilot and it showed us the importance of engaging BIPOC youth artists and supporting them in their own careers.

Alex: We went from documenting stories and putting up our artwork on the walls of Scarborough in year one to working alongside youth to help them reach their creative potential and put up their artwork in public libraries and transit stations in year two.

Sid: SM evolved to become a multifaceted intervention for community arts, enabling youth to become documentary storytellers and allowing them to showcase their work in public spaces as well. Five years since the idea started, and we’ve documented 52 stories from communities, mentoring over 26 BIPOC youth artists and by the end of 2024 we will have produced eight unique public art activations in the community.

Having accomplished what we first set out to achieve when we started the work, we are now excited about future evolutions that 13 photoED

find new ways to support youth and communities through local storytelling at a professional calibre.

Alex: As we celebrate our milestone, we want to encourage communities across Canada and beyond to take control of their own narratives and tell their own stories that celebrate the everyday heroes of their local neighbourhoods. We hope we can inspire more underrepresented communities like Scarborough to go on to develop their own “Made” projects.

For more information about this project, please visit:

scarboroughmade.com IG: @scarboroughmade

PHOTO PHENOLOGY

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WE INVITED OUR PATRONS to participate in a creative

conversation through images based on the four seasons.

1. Patricia Kozubski • Kamloops, BC 2. Henry VanderSpek • Toronto, ON 3. Leah Murray • Surrey, BC 4. hckygrlphoto • Toronto, ON

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SPRING “Despite the forecast, live like it’s spring.” ― Lilly Pulitzer

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1. Anaïs Are • Toronto, ON 2. CB Campbell • Thunder Bay, ON 3. Donna McFarlane • Bayfield, ON 4. Lisa Murzin • Toronto, ON

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5. Jody van der Kwaak • Georgetown, ON 6. Lori Ryerson • Toronto, ON 7. Ross Stockwell • Toronto, ON

SUMMER “There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart.” ― Celia Thaxter

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6 1. Chris Goodyear • Kanata, ON 2. Frank Myers • Burlington, ON 3. Nancy Stirpe • Vaughan, ON 4. Jude Marion • Hamilton, ON

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5. Ian Brunt • Waterloo, ON 6. Patricia Parsons • Ottawa, ON 7. hckygrlphoto • Toronto, ON 8. Mandy Klein • Newmarket, ON

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FALL “And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves.” ― Virginia Woolf

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1. Tracey Halladay • Elkford, BC 2. John Honek • St. Agatha, ON 3. Akemi Matsubuchi • St. Albert, AB 4. Carol How • Surrey, BC

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5. Micah Klein • Newmarket, ON 6. Nozomi Kamei • Edmonton, AB 7. E. Ross Bradley • Edmonton, AB

WINTER “Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake.” ― Sara Raasch, Snow Like Ashes

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1. Chris Alic • St. Catharines, ON 2. Vera Saltzman • Fort Qu'Appelle, SK 3. Bob Royer • Edmonton, AB 4. John Healey • Ottawa, ON 5. Emma Juliette Sherland • Mississauga, ON

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6. Alan Bulley • Gatineau, QC 7. Alan McCord • Georgetown, ON 8. David Brandy • Clarksburg, ON 9. Troy Glover • Watson Lake, YT

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History, Memory,

LEFT: June Clark, “Dirge,” Oxidized metal on canvas, 2003.

RIGHT: Christina Leslie, “Hope and Present Chapter” (Image 3), from the series Sugar Coat. Pigment print on sugar cane paper, 2021.

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Sugar, Rust.

JUNE CLARK and CHRISTINA LESLIE in conversation with CRAIG D’ARVILLE, FFOTO.com co-founder

ALTHOUGH BORN and raised in different places and generations, June Clark and Christina Leslie share a fascination with pushing the material limits of photographs through their multidisciplinary art practices.

Both artists meld images as objects suggesting layers of histories, and neither are afraid to make art out of degradable materials. June (born in 1941) works with heirlooms and found items, and Christina (born in 1983) manipulates sugar. Both integrate text into their work, creating images that acknowledge the mutability of memory while delivering matter-of-fact observations that “this, too, is my history.” photoED 20

IT IS MY PRIVILEGE to share a (condensed) conversation with these two artists here. Although they had not met previously, it was a joy to discover their complementary curiosities and unique approaches to photo-based art-making at this moment in our shared history.

Craig: In both of your art practices, time (or history?) seems akin to a collaborative partner in your process.

Christina: I think all of my series deal with time, in a way. I’ve been thinking a lot about a kind-of memento mori reference; this idea of the impermanence of life, and I think Sugar Coat represents that idea.

June: I have taken photographs for many years, but my impetus to look back at them really had to do with a discussion with my younger sister. We are very close, and we sort of grew up like twins, finishing each other’s sentences. I could look across the room and know exactly what she was thinking and vice versa. One day when I brought up a past incident, to my dismay, she remembered the situation completely differently. I began thinking about memory and how elusive it is and how it, like an imp, can fool and betray. I think we are all the stars in our own memories. I found myself irate with her that she didn’t have the same memory as I did. That began my trajectory of using memory in my work.

Craig: Would you say your work is a means to recontextualize your experiences?

June: Yes. Whispering City was the first series where I tried to illustrate how memory recedes and emerges, and outlines how you never have the full picture.

Craig: For Christina, some of the approaches in your work seem similar. EveryTING Irie is about understanding your elders and extended family?

Christina: EveryTING Irie is very much about recollection. I asked my family to relay memories to make this work; now, 20 years since, they don’t seem to remember the same stories that they told me originally. I think about my Aunti Pinky who has now passed away. I think that that’s what makes that work even more meaningful to me now.

instinctual approaches. I think about the gestural quality of June’s work. In Whispering Cities, parts of the images seem erased. I’m thinking specifically of the piece that looks like people marching and a sign that says “Repent.” There’s a coming-of-age quality to these images.

June: These are memories from my childhood. I used a child’s printing toy to place text on the images.

Christina: The text reminded me of a typewriter.

June: For the first pieces I did, I used an electric typewriter. But the piece that you’re talking about, the religious parade of people marching, that was actually found text. Growing up in Harlem, there were always churches that would do parades and the congregation would come down the street with gospel or whatever. It was a memory that was waiting to be visualized.

Christina: I’m curious about your production process. Were you only partially coating prints with the developer?

June: No, they’re photo etchings. The images are on copper plates.

I didn’t put the ink on the entire plate because I wanted that emerging/receding feel to the images.

For Whispering City, the images and the text are 30 years apart.

When I first came to Toronto, we had 48 hours to get out of the United States to avoid the Vietnam draft. We left on Tuesday and were in Toronto on Thursday. It was wrenching for me, having only ever lived and grown up in Harlem. My camera was my way of walking around this new city and trying to find a sense of community. It wasn’t until much later when I learned printmaking and the delicious craft of photo etching that the memories allowed me to understand why I made certain images, and the text rose to the surface.

Most of my texts are things my grandmother said or stories that just came up. I then went looking for an image from my negatives that would go with it. By wiping the plate in the way I did, I felt I illustrated my way out of saying this is a document as opposed to this is a memory.

Christina: That must make it hard to create editions.

Maybe I did more of that recontextualizing with my Sugar Coat series because those pieces present memories as well as historical research.

June: I don’t like editions. I find them incredibly boring. Once I’ve done something, I’m not interested in replicating it. Every print is slightly different simply because I’m inking the plate differently each time.

Getting to know June’s work, I get more curious about our shared

Christina: My practice is similar. The original version of

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Christina Leslie, “Aunti Pinky,” from the series EveryTING Irie. 2006.

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TOP: June Clark, “The person we think we are; the person others think we are; the person we really are,” from the Whispering City series, 1994.

BELOW: June Clark, installation view, Witness exhibition at the Power Plant, “Harlem Quilt, 1997,” Toronto, 2024.

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EveryTING Irie is in Ken Montague’s Wedge Collection. To exhibit the work since then, I’ve had to get the original pieces scanned because they can’t be reproduced in the same way ever again. In Sugar Coat, the actual pieces are the sugar-based objects. They can’t ever be reproduced identically.

I like that your methodology employs the science of photography but also understands the craftsmanship of printmaking and goes back to our oldest ways of reproducing images on paper. That has me thinking about the portrait of the smoking man (“The Person We Think We Are; The Person Others Think We Are; The Person We Really Are,” from the series Whispering City, 1994).

June: You know, I didn’t really know him. I was visiting a friend and they came in together, had some ganja, and started smoking it.

I just thought it was amazing to witness the smoke. At the time I was making images of Black men and how under siege they are in North America. The text came from the idea that I was trying to illustrate that this person is a full human being. He’s not just a skin colour, or a hat wearer, or a hood wearer, or whatever. You have to think that they were all someone’s baby at some time, and they’re not just what the media implies they are.

Craig: That concern is also addressed in Formative Triptych, from 1990, which includes a Carl Von Vechten portrait of Bessie Smith and references a quote attributed to her: “I decided that I must become so famous and so recognizable so that they could never let me die in an emergency room.”

June: As it turns out, the quote with the Bessie Smith portrait is not her quote. It’s a determination that I formulated as a kid in my own mind when I heard the story of what was purported to have happened to her. For me, as a little kid, the message was, if you go into the hospital, you want them to think you are important enough to be saved. This has nothing to do particularly with being Black but people look at facades all the time and the facade can make people not care about you. A lot of my work is about that.

Craig: June, do you feel an overt responsibility to the communities that you identify with in the work that you make?

June: The word “responsibility,” for me, doesn’t work. When you grow up in the community, you’re just part of it. I feel that the people who’ve gone before are pushing and prodding me, urging me to make statements because they trust that I’m gonna make a statement that will make them proud.

Craig: Is Harlem Quilt perhaps the best example of that feeling?

June: Yes. People who saw Harlem Quilt when I showed it in New York said, “Oh, that’s so-and-so” or “That’s this or that.” but, most of my work comes from something deep inside me.

Somehow, it also becomes a communal work. I don’t set out to say, “This is my community.” I set out to illustrate my own memories.

Craig: Christina, do you feel a responsibility through the work you make to the communities you grew up in?

Christina: Yes. However, navigating identity as a biracial individual can be complex, and I don’t always fit into one specific community. I have always embraced my Jamaican heritage. My connection to the Jamaican community, where my father is from, inspired me to create work that represents the broader Caribbean experience, beyond the typical focus on tourism and reggae and soca music.

The deep history of the Caribbean islands motivated me to create Sugar Coat. While pursuing my master’s in the United States, I was struck by the widespread ignorance about Caribbean history, especially slavery. This drove me to highlight the shared history among the Caribbean, African American, and British experiences.

Colonialism shaped many diaspora narratives, so I do feel my photographic work should reflect these connections and support Caribbean stories.

June: Growing up in the United States, everyone knows about slavery there, but I’m appalled that Americans didn’t realize there was slavery in the Caribbean. I mean, what country in the world doesn’t or hasn’t participated in some way in slavery? But I suppose what you’re saying is that we have to — and I certainly try my best — guard against the Disney-fication of our stories. That’s what we are trying to counter.

Craig: As makers of conceptual and installation-based work centred on personal experiences and memory, is there always inspiration to tap into?

Christina: I didn’t make work for nine years. I had no inspiration.

People talk about writer’s block, but I think artists can have artist’s block. I think the further you are away from your community of artists, you can feel isolated and remove yourself from even the language you use to speak about art. I love when artists get what Oprah calls an “a-ha moment.” For me, that comes from talking to other makers and artists. There’s something in hearing about their processes and methodologies that inspires me.

June: There are times when I don’t make, and I don’t feel physically well when I don’t make. However, I can go into the studio (and it often happens) and the studio says, “What the hell are you doing here?” You know, “You did this last week and it’s not working. So you should probably go back home.” Even if you don’t plan to do anything, you go in there and you sit and you look around. I don’t panic about it, but it doesn’t feel good.

Craig: Do you have any words of wisdom and encouragement for emerging artists who are making conceptual photo-based work?

Christina: If you’re serious about image-making, then the more people you connect with, the better. It’s always great to make photoED 24

TOP: June Clark, “You can’t repent too soon for you don’t know how soon it will be too late,” from the Whispering City series, 1994.

BELOW: June Clark, installation view of “You can’t repent too soon for you don’t know how soon it will be too late,” presented as a billboard at the Power Plant, Toronto, 2024.

studio visits. But having said that, everyone’s gonna have an opinion, right? Some people are gonna like your work and some people aren’t. So you have to ask yourself: Are you making work for yourself or are you making work for other people? And if you are making work for yourself and you feel strongly about it, then lean into it.

June: It can be very hard for a young person to reach inside. Until we’re a certain age, we honestly don’t know who we are, but we just have to keep believing in what’s inside.

For me, I look to all the people who I felt gave me permission. I’ll look to Louise Bourgeois, and I’ll go to Robert Rauschenberg. I look to people who just went on their way and did what they needed to do. I think of my dad and my ancestors saying, “Yes, just keep going.”

June Clark: Unrequited Love continues until January 5, 2025, at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Witness, the first survey in Canada celebrating June Clark, took place at The Power Plant from May to August 2024, and her photography was featured at the Greater Toronto Art 2024 exhibition at the MOCA in Toronto from May to August 2024.

June Clark is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto.

Christina Leslie’s art practice will be the subject of a solo exhibition at Robert McLaughlin Gallery, from November 2024, to April 2025.

When I was in New York, David Hammons looked at my work and said, “Don’t take the art world too seriously.”

Christina Leslie is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.

Also, it’s very hard for a young person not to listen to advice from other people. But you’re right, Christina, I think that it is important to surround yourself with people who you trust to encourage you.

Craig D’Arville is co-founder, along with Stephen Bulger, of FFOTO.com, an online platform that offers photo-based works by established artists and is an incubator for emerging talent.

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FFOTO.com

ZINNIA NAQVI:

TIME AFTER TIME

BY DARREN POTTIE

“Solar Impression I,” and “Solar Impression II.” Courtesy Susan Hobbs Gallery.

Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid, 2024.

A PRINTED PHOTOGRAPH will always depict the past, but does it matter how recent that past is? The newness of an image can make it feel relevant but mask our ability to critically engage with it, to step back and look at the context outside of the image. The passage of time can reveal new ways to interpret a photograph, depending on shifts in the ideas we have in contemporary culture. We often look back and chuckle because of “how we’ve changed.” In reality, this back and forth oscillation of time in a photograph can highlight the differences between now and then, sometimes revealing slow movements towards colonial and racial justice in Canada.

Tkaronto-/Toronto-based artist Zinnia Naqvi finds the untapped potential of the past, blurring barriers between personal and political.

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Through images, film, text, and installations, Zinnia examines issues of colonialism, cultural translation, social class, and citizenship. She often uses her family albums for sources of inspiration. Sometimes she re-stages these images, using the passage of time as a critical reflection point on who she is now and where she came from.

but popular references. The game Settlers of Catan, the Disney movie Pocahontas, and the book Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation through the Lens of Cultural Diversity present the viewer with layers of Zinnia’s personal experience. Zinnia uses these pop culture and critical theory references to frame her questions, inviting viewers to accompany her on her exploration.

Tourist sites such as Niagara Falls are recognizable across Canada and around the world. The incredible power of the water and land highlights Canada’s unique topography and underscores an idea that connection to nature is raw and alive. Governments stage advertisements and information centres around these sorts of notable places to promote a semblance of Canadian ideals and values often minimizing Indigenous presence. Moreover the promotions are used to grow tourism and encourage immigration, a foundation of nation-building in Canada. Ontario’s 1984 campaign Yours to Discover was internationally recognized in that capacity. In Zinnia’s project of the same name, she dissects the colonial implications of these sites, using her own family’s photographs to narrate these discussions, bringing a deeply personal sense of vulnerability and emotion to the project.

The work registers a tension and confronts a discomforting complicity, while also remaining truthful and sentimental to her family’s story. More specifically, the work applies a contemporary lens onto photographs that have survived the passage of time.

Being read and reread through different theoretical lenses over time is one of the powers of a photograph.

Tenderly rendered still lifes present her family’s visits to sites such as Niagara Falls, the CN Tower, or Cullen Gardens and Miniature Village on their first trips to Canada, before eventually settling in Toronto from Pakistan. In “The Wanderers - Niagara Falls, 1988, 2019,” Zinnia surrounds family photos with objects of colonial 27 photoED

In Another Desi with a Camera, Zinnia recreates moments from her family archive. She sits exactly where strangers sat, in and among the tourist crowd at Niagara Falls, while her partner re-enacts the figure of the white man, his back turned to the artist. She presents text below the grid of six images that poetically muses on the act of being seen, and of witnessing. At the end, she reveals it is the same photographer who took the images in both instances.

The work retraces footsteps in a parallel pilgrimage to better understand experiences of the past. But just like the voyeuristic feeling of looking at personal photographs, the experience of watching and being watched or intruding is palpable. Through the

LEFT: “A Whole New World – CN Tower, 1988,” from the series Yours to Discover, 2019.

TOP: “Continuous Journey,” from the series Yours to Discover, 2019.

RIGHT: “A Border Passage,” from the series Yours to Discover, 2019. photoED 28

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“The Wanderers - Niagara Falls, 1988,” from the series Yours to Discover, 2019.

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mirroring of certain people, Zinnia highlights the Brown body in the landscape in reference to the others. This action accentuates a distance between the people visiting the site, and the incredible natural phenomena in the background.

What is unique and so personable about Zinnia’s work is that she invites us into her process of reading these images through unique framing within the camera and the exploratory installation processes. For example, in her large-scale installation work “On Being Included,” Zinnia literally breaks apart an image, accentuating the physical barriers and metaphorical distance between the spectators in the distance and the miniature carnival scene at Cullen Gardens in the foreground. This large-scale presentation method accentuates and dissects our reading of the image.

Likewise in “A Border Passage” and “Continuous Journey,” the same image is presented twice, once large and once small, with the artist’s hand holding the small version, often obscuring certain people.

Viewers are encouraged to look closer by physically taking a step towards the work and looking for the obscured details, and looking at who’s being presented and who isn’t. It is both a (re)presentation of the image and a hint at the artist’s approach. She is looking to wrest a moment from the flow of time and to examine the photograph, not as a story in and of itself, but in the ways we might explore it through critical discourse. These images of the past inhabit and punctuate the present, creating a temporal collision that pulls at the threads of Canada’s cultural fabric.

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It is striking how many artists return to analog, historical, and alternative photographic techniques, looking to pause the rush of digital images, slowing time and their processes. In “Solar Impression I” and “Solar Impression II,” Zinnia presents the remnants of paper from behind photographs, bleached by the sun and exhibiting only shadows. An image only made possible after years on display. The images present stories, memories, and mementos that we cannot access, but yet we still look for clues to their meaning. In context with the other work in her oeuvre, Solar Impressions echoes a rejection of the narrative elements within a photograph, opting instead to explore the potential of the medium, of what information we have, and what will always be lost to time.

Zinnia’s ongoing play with archival images creates a refreshingly personal examination of colonialism, inclusion, and identity.

Through her techniques of re-creation, re-framing, physical manipulation, and inserting herself into the images, she presents a prism of possible ways to interpret past photographs, bringing the audience into her thought processes. Her work does not dredge up a single story from her past during the moment the photograph was made, but instead shows us the many pasts it can accumulate.

The many parallels it can contain. The photographs she works with are records of a moment, but the many readings of that moment present new understandings of the present and the future.

zinnianaqvi.com

LEFT: “On Being Included,” inkjet prints mounted on plywood, installation view, Susan Hobbs Gallery, 2024.

RIGHT: “Another Desi with a camera,” inkjet prints and adhesive vinyl, 2020.

Courtesy Susan Hobbs Gallery, Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.

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PORTFOLIO

TIME

DAPHNE FAYE BOXILL Toronto, ON

WE ALL LIVE TOGETHER “My art is a reflection of the intersectionality of my identity, influenced by my Caribbean heritage and upbringing in New Brunswick. With my camera, I explore themes of intergenerational racist trauma and the impact that has had on my body. For me, self-portraiture is a portal to self-discovery, a celebration of my roots, and an assertion of my presence.” molelovesbokeh.work IG: @molelovesbokeh

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ELSA HASHEMI Toronto, ON

A GAZER IN QUARANTINE “A selection from a series of 50 images taken while in quarantine. Each pairs something I was gazing at with me in my surroundings. Laid off from work, locked down at home, nowhere to go, no one to meet, just me in my studio. Time passed slowly, yet every day I discovered a new relationship with my surroundings, which helped me to stay hopeful.” elsahashemi.net/quarantine-series IG: @elsa.hashemi 35 photoED

LUCY LU Toronto, ON

AFTER YEYE “All my life, my grandparents home in Xi’an, China, has been a place that felt impervious to time. But since my yeye’s passing in 2021, it is now a stark reminder of time’s inevitable flow, of presence, absence, and a memory-shaping place.” lucylu.ca IG: @lucyluphoto

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FARAH AL AMIN Toronto, ON

DECAY “The entanglement of life with death, to preserve a moment when one life form blossoms while another fades, when the ordinary is taken over by the strange and otherworldly.” farahalamin.com IG:@farahalamin_

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JULIANNA D'INTINO Thorold, ON

CONNECTING RODS “Connecting Rods is a study of the demise of the manufacturing industry in Niagara, focused on the General Motors factory in St. Catharines where my father and maternal grandfather both worked. Shuttered in 2010, the factory exists in a half-demolished state, a stasis it has been in since 2015. Once an economic powerhouse for the region, the site is now a point of contention in local politics, with the shadow of its demise something that the city cannot shake.” juliannadintino.com IG: @juliannadintino

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ELIZABETH SIEGFRIED Dwight, ON

ANCESTRY WITH LEGACY LIFE AFTER LIFE-LINKING “Family portraits, objects, and structures create a bridge between the past and present.” elizabethsiegfried.com IG:@elizabeth_siegfried_photo

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CATHERINE PAGE Edmonton, AB

“I’M STILL STANDING,” from FRAGMENTS OF TIME catherinepagephoto.com IG: @catherineeva

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What Time Is This Place?

AN INTERVIEW WITH SYLVIA GALBRAITH

BY RITA GODLEVSKIS

SYLVIA GALBRAITH is a visual artist whose methods of image creation range from video and installation to analog and alternative photographic processes. She has worked with numerous mediums over the years, including oils, charcoal, and clay, but found that the restrictions inherent to the camera inspired and challenged her more than any other art form.

Her current practice demonstrates a deep connection with the landscapes and people found in some of Canada’s loneliest places.

TOP: “Hilda’s Bedroom, East View,” 2022.

BOTTOM: “Loretta’s Place,” 2019.

We asked her a few questions about her practice. photoED 42

TOP: “The Factory,” 2022.

BOTTOM: “Afternoon Light, Bird Island,” 2022.

Two timelines overlap in my photographs, each moving in individual ways.

How did you get the idea to create the What Time Is This Place series?

The landscape has always been a draw for me. My photographs respond to the physicality of being in a place: the ground I am standing on and the events that shaped it. I am especially interested in isolated places where people have a deep bond with their environment over generations. In this work, I thought about the overlay of rugged land and interior home lives, built structures combined with distant landscapes. I create room-sized camera obscuras to reveal an internalized combination of the two.

On first glance, the images present the viewer with a confusing dual image that presents two places and two moments in time simultaneously. Can you tell us a bit about your thinking on this idea?

Two timelines overlap in my photographs, each moving in individual ways. The human-built environment follows a short timeline, while a landscape’s geological timeline is much slower and represents millions or billions of years. These intersect briefly as my images are made, and then the moment passes.

Can you share some of the stories behind some of these places?

They look and feel abandoned. Tell us about the locations and how you found them.

The photographs included here are from Newfoundland and, yes, a few of them are uninhabited. I hesitate to say “abandoned” because they are still cherished and maintained by owners who had to move away for various reasons. Others are currently lived in, and I’ve also photographed churches, workshops, and a luxury inn so, really, they represent a cross-section of both old and new buildings. I’m more concerned with a sense of whether the

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structure belongs in its place: Is there evidence of a symbiotic relationship between the building and the landscape it inhabits?

Why was it placed on that particular spot, looking at that particular view? It’s usually after I make the images that I dig deeper into a place’s history. I don’t really want the stories to influence my response to the visual aspects of the location. But I do find there is something about every one that I initially must have recognized as being special on a subliminal level. When learning the stories later, I discover that connection I feel when first arriving at a location. It’s intuitive. I basically drive around, find a likely location, and then knock on the door and beg the owners to let me take over their house for several days while I wait for weather and light to cooperate. Surprisingly (or not, given the generous spirit of Newfoundlanders), no one has ever said “no.”

Tell us about the trial-and-error process you’ve worked through to create this series. What equipment do you use to produce your works?

I enjoy a challenge. Creating photographs using a room-sized camera obscura is highly unpredictable and is dependent on the random qualities of light and the physical things I can’t control.

For example, does the room have patterned wallpaper that will hide the scene? Is it cluttered with furniture or other objects? Is there a large tree in front of the only window that will block the view? Can I actually make the space completely dark or are there too many cracks and light leaks in the building? Will the sun come out when I need it to? Once I cover everything with plastic, will I run out of air and pass out? Are there spiders?

First I create the camera obscura, using miles of masking tape and reams of thick black plastic to seal off all light in the room, leaving

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TOP: “Towards Fox Island,” 2022.

BOTTOM: “Charlie’s Cove, West Wall,” 2023.

Photography allows me to capture the immediacy of brief interactions of light on a subject.

only a tiny hole on one window to let the exterior view inside, and I hope that the scene I imagined actually appears on the wall. From inside this space, I then use a digital camera to photograph the outside scene as it is revealed on the interior wall opposite the hole.

Often I come back over a number of days or weeks, in different weather and times of day to record the changes in the scene as they occur on the walls. I love the fact that I am combining the basics of photography’s origin (a camera obscura) with current digital technology to make a single image, essentially overlapping disparate technologies that reflect yet another timeline.

people and place, or concepts of change within built environments, I discover my own ideas that I then try to describe visually with a camera. The title of this series, What Time Is This Place? is from a book of the same name by Kevin Lynch, described by the publisher as “dealing with this human sense of time, a biological rhythm that may follow a different beat from that dictated by external, ‘official,’ ‘objective’ timepieces, how this innate sense affects the ways we view and change our physical environment.” The ideas presented in this book have inspired me and influenced my photographic explorations in this series.

What do you love about creating stories through photography and light?

Of course, I do have my favourite photographers as well — Joel Meyerowitz, Sally Mann, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and many others — but I’m more interested in the personal ideas behind the images than the nuts and bolts of how or where they made the photographs. I strive to follow my own path.

People say you have to leave to discover yourself. By travelling to and photographing places that demonstrate such a deep connection between the land and its inhabitants, I feel that I have developed a deeper understanding of my own personal history: of immigrant parents and attachments to places we come from, the resilience and bravery required not only to move somewhere else, but also to stay behind. I have always responded to the visual world first, before written or spoken accounts, and photography allows me to capture the immediacy of brief interactions of light on a subject.

Whose work has influenced yours?

Having worked in several art forms over the years, I draw inspiration from many types of artists: painters, musicians, and other photographers. Surprisingly, it is the work of writers such as Lucy Lippard and Rebecca Solnit that seems to have the most effect on my own work. When reading their thoughts relating to

What photography projects can we look forward to seeing from you in the future?

This body of work is ongoing and there is more to discover, so I am expanding this project to include other places. Iceland and Scotland are next. Both are hard places with astonishing landscapes and resilient people. While primarily using the camera obscura, I have been exploring alternative photographic processes such as mordençage and chemical interventions on traditional prints to present my ideas in multiple ways.

IG: @sylviagalbraith sylviagalbraith.ca

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WADE COMER:

LAYERED TIME

BY CECE M. SCOTT LEFT: “Cathedral Ceilings.”

RIGHT: “The Evergreen,” from the Superstructures series. photoED 48

THE THE VERY VERY ESSENCE ESSENCE

of photography is one of captured time: what is happening in the moment that the shutter is released, followed by how those moments become edited as important events, and later how the image can offer a different, reflective perspective for a viewer with the passage of time. As such, a camera can be more than a means for capturing a definitive moment; rather, it becomes an illustrative tool that facilitates layers of time.

“A photograph not only captures what was present in front of a camera, but preserves the moment when that reality existed,” says photographer Wade Comer, a Vancouver-based artist whose work investigates the mechanical, psychological, and emotional aspects of how we see. He looks to use his camera “as more a painting tool than as a conventional recording device.”

“My artistic process explores the ways in which the camera can be used to advance the dialogue surrounding our sense of perception, questions of reality, and the mechanics of sight,” Wade says.

“Through various photographic techniques, I make images that utilize the attributes of the camera that the human eye cannot achieve — especially in capturing time. Long exposures, multiple exposures, and the flattening of space are techniques that cannot be achieved with the naked eye, yet highlight memory and emotion all the same.”

In the Persistence of Vision series, Wade takes advantage of the camera’s ability to create multiple exposures to produce single images capturing overlapping layers of time and space. The project is broken into various parts, some of which explore nature — From One Star, Millions, Cathedral Ceilings, and Treeees — whereas Superstructures examines and celebrates urban environments.

The impacts of time — what we see in the present and then how we, as viewers, become witnesses to history as time passes — is another avenue Wade explores in his work. In his project How We See, Wade “creates works that question our vision and sense of perception while capitalizing on the opportunities the camera provides to see differently,” he says.

Wade does not consider a single photographic frame to be an accurate linear representation of a time and a place. Instead, his work presents a layered multiverse that lives beyond the frame, which might be closer to expressing “truth” through an image.

wadecomer.ca TOP: “Treeees” BOTTOM: “Jameson House-Compendium” RIGHT: “From One Star, Millions” 49 photoED

“A PHOTOGRAPH NOT ONLY CAPTURES WHAT WAS PRESENT IN FRONT OF A CAMERA, BUT PRESERVES THE MOMENT WHEN THAT REALITY EXISTED.”

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Marie-Berthe, 102 years old

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Arianne Clément:

Aging , Beautifully

BY ALAN BULLEY

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FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS, Quebec photographer Arianne Clément has turned her lens towards one of the fastest-growing segments of Canadian society: centenarians. As the country’s population continues to age, more and more women — and, somewhat less often, men — now celebrate their one-hundredth birthdays.

Although her attention was initially caught by women in the Montérégie region who had passed the hundred-year mark, Arianne realized that there was much more to the story than simply living longer. She remembers that “one of the centenarian women, Marie-Berthe, was extremely flirtatious, provocative, and loved the camera very, very much. She was a kind of 102-year-old Marilyn Monroe.” This encounter led to further projects that leaned towards the boudoir: not just a surface treatment of beauty or beauty rituals but to more boldly tackling questions about the sensuality and sexuality of older people. One set of questions gave rise naturally to the next.

Since her project 100 ans, âge de beauté was featured in photoED Magazine in 2017, Arianne’s interest in older people has only grown deeper and broader.

Having begun with Marie-Berthe, Arianne discovered 53 photoED

new explorations and connections. She proposed a boudoir photography session with her friend Christine (87 years old) and her husband Paul (age 101). Christine hesitated out of fear about what her sister would think, but Paul was all for it. Arianne says, “I put the photo on Facebook the same day, and it went viral. It was shared hundreds of thousands of times and then I added a call to the post to say I was looking for more models. I had no budget to follow up on the answers from Europe, but I drove all over Quebec to meet my models. I still have people who come to me who say, ‘I would like to participate!’”

Before long, Arianne expanded her net to include more older men and members of the LGBTQ+ community in a series she called l’Art de vieillir (The Art of Aging).

Along this path, Arianne became interested in and travelled to places throughout the world where people regularly lived to an advanced age — so called “Blue Zones,” including Sardinia, Greece, Japan, Costa Rica, and California — that are often used as case studies in longevity as researchers look for the factors that contribute to extending a healthy life through diet, climate, exercise, and many other factors. Arianne

THIS ENCOUNTER LED TO FURTHER PROJECTS THAT LEANED TOWARDS THE BOUDOIR: NOT JUST A SURFACE TREATMENT OF BEAUTY OR BEAUTY RITUALS BUT TO MORE BOLDLY TACKLING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SENSUALITY AND SEXUALITY OF OLDER PEOPLE. ONE SET OF QUESTIONS GAVE RISE NATURALLY TO THE NEXT.

TOP LEFT: Pakko, 63 years old.

TOP RIGHT: Mélodie, 69 years old, and La rouquine, 74 years old.

LEFT: Chloé, 72 years old.

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NOT ONE TO SHY AWAY FROM TOUGH REALITIES, ARIANNE OFTEN HEARS FROM OLDER PEOPLE ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF LONELINESS AND INVISIBILITY

remembers being struck not so much by the commonalities across the Blue Zones, but by “meeting people who are from cultures very different from each other.” Following this project, researchers from the Université de Sherbrooke asked if she would work with them on a project to help counter ageism.

As one project continues to lead to another, the photographer’s focus is beginning to turn toward more social and political themes: “I want to look at how the elderly suffer, or how we approach death.

Depending on the culture, depending on beliefs, there are all kinds of ways of approaching it.”

Presentations of the challenging aspects of the aging process are not always well-received by the public, however. As Arianne points out, “the photos that have become famous, it’s Marie-Berthe almost naked, it’s Paul and Christine looking at each other.” We like to “celebrate old age and to see things that make us happy, that look good on us, but we don’t want sad photos or photos that remind us of realities. However, they still interest me.”

Among the themes on Arianne’s horizon are the housing crisis and the story of the Duplessis orphans (Quebec orphans who, between 1935 and 1964, were at times falsely misdiagnosed with mental health problems and unnecessarily institutionalized,) with links to institutional violence and mental health issues.

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Not one to shy away from tough realities, Arianne often hears from older people about the challenges of loneliness and invisibility: “If I think about television shows and cartoons, the idea of a ‘grandmother’ was a lady with a bun who knits alongside her cat. We couldn’t imagine being a grandmother who has a sex life, a grandmother who travels, who learns languages, or who is an LGBTQ+ human being. There was just the grandmother with the bun who knits.”

Not surprisingly, spending so much time documenting the elderly has led Arianne to think about her own aging process. There are many recipes for healthy aging — from hedonism to asceticism, and back again. She is convinced, though, that strong ties to others is key to a long and fulfilling life. She says, “It’s the quality of the links. Whether it is through community, family, or a network of friends and neighbours, we must maintain links. What’s fatal is loneliness.”

Arianne continues to photograph seniors and to show her work in exhibitions and publications all over the world, picking up various accolades along the way.

Her work glows with genuine affection for older people and her gift for making meaningful connections with them.

And that never gets old.

Paul, 102 years old, and Christine, 87 years old.

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“My work explores the beauty found within the fleeting nature of existence.”

LEFT: “126 Day Solargraph (2016.06.24 – 2016.10.28), Toronto, Ontario."

ABOVE: “183 Day Solargraph #1 (2023.07.21 – 2023.12.21), Oakville, Ontario.”

RIGHT: “Total Eclipse over Port Maitland Lighthouse - 1 Day Solargraph (2024-0408), Ontario.”

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BRET CULP:

SOLARGRAPHY AND THE BEAUTY OF IMPERMANENCE SOLARGRAPHY is an alternative photography process that uses homemade pinhole cameras and light-sensitive black and white photo paper to capture exceptionally long exposures of the Sun’s movement across the sky. The colours are a byproduct of the extremely long exposures and the chemical breakdown of the paper. Over the course of days, weeks, and months, a single image is meticulously constructed, revealing a unique record of space, time, and weather patterns that would otherwise remain unseen.

The resulting sun tracks present a gradual day-to-day change, attributable to the Earth’s 23.4-degree axial tilt and slightly elliptical orbit. The height of each track is determined by the latitude of the exposure location and the time of year it is recorded. The lowest track is produced on the winter solstice, while the highest track corresponds to the summer solstice.

Missing, faint, or broken tracks occur when clouds or other obstructions block the Sun. The colours depicted in the images are not direct representations of the scene, but rather the result of the paper’s chemical reactions to extreme overexposure, as well as the influence of

bretculp.com

uncontrollable factors such as moisture, dirt, significant temperature fluctuations, or fungus that may infiltrate the pinhole camera. Furthermore, each brand of photography paper possesses a unique chemical composition, leading to distinct colour schemes.

If developed using traditional methods, the photo paper would turn completely black and the use of a photography fixer would diminish much of the colour. Instead, the prolonged exposure times etch the image onto the paper without requiring any additional steps. A high-quality flatbed scan is then performed on the resulting negative (paper) despite its light sensitivity.

Light emitted by the scanner degrades or destroys the original image as it traverses the paper. Once scanned, the image is inverted, horizontally flipped and further processed digitally using Lightroom and Photoshop.

Bret Culp is a photographer and visual effects supervisor based in Georgian Bay, Ontario.

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BEACH BLISS BILLED AS THE WORLD’S GREATEST PHOTO GAME, GuruShots is an international competition platform for photographers.

Players get feedback from more than three billion monthly voters and try to work their way up through rankings, from Newbie to the ultimate status (and bragging rights) of Guru.

GuruShots’ challenges are voted on by the platform’s Gurus and the wider community, with a fresh challenge every day. Winners can receive prizes from GuruShots’ sponsors such as Adorama, Kodak, Lowepro, and Lensbaby.

The Beach Bliss Challenge showcases a wave of wonderful interpretations on this theme from around the world.

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1. Phil Green • United Kingdom 2. Anna Benháková • Czechia 3. Arta Berzina • Latvia 4. Bednarek Luc • Belgium 5. Martin F • Slovakia 6. Gil Shmueli • Israel 7. Chris Santiago • United States 8. Kevin Nuccitelli • United States 9. Mario Congreve • United States 10. Andrei Tomas • Romania

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11. Guy Wilson • Israel 12. Ramona Webel • Germany 13. Roy Egloff • Switzerland 14. Rózsa Balázs • Romania 15. Ryszard Tutko • Poland 16. Sebastian Marius Popescu • Romania 17. Shervin Yektaparast • Canada 18. Violetta Wieczorek Kuchciak • United States 19. Wlodzimierz Olejniczak • Poland 20. Xan White • Switzerland

20 See more entries from this challenge online: photoed.ca/post/gurushots-beachbliss

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THE GALLERY SUBMISSIONS BY OUR READERS

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1. KAHAME MSISKA Brampton, ON MAKUMBI IG: @kahame_ wearethenewother.com

2. JEAN-MAURICE CORMIER Newcastle, ON TIME TRAVEL DOPPELGÄNGER IG: @jmcormier101 jmcormier.picfair.com

3. MICAH KLEIN Newmarket, ON RECLAIMED BY NATURE kleinbayphotography.photoshelter.com IG: @kleinbayphotography

4. ARIELLE CHUNG Waterloo, ON

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE...

Check out the DIGITAL EDITION EXTRA ONLINE - OCTOBER 1, 2024 to see more TIME work by more Canadian photographers.

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5. JAMES R. PAGE Val Marie, SK ABANDONED PONTIAC flickr.com/photos/pageworld

6. XIATONG CAI Ottawa, ON AFTER RETIREMENT IG: @xiatongc xiatongphotography.com

ARIELLE CHUNG ATIA POKORNY B. BOGART BENJAMIN REY BRENDAN JAMES LACY CAROL HOW CATHERINE PAGE CHARA HO DALE M. REID DAPHNE FAYE BOXILL DEBBIE CONACHER E. MCDONOUGH ELIZABETH SIEGFRIED ELSA HASHEMI FARAH AL AMIN FAUSTA FACCIPONTE FREIDA WANG GARETH JONES GREGORY A MCCULLOUGH HAFSA MURTAZA IAN BRUNT JAMES R. PAGE JEAN-MAURICE CORMIER JEET KUMAR JERRY CORDEIRO JILL FINNEY JUDY H. MCPHEE JULIANNA D'INTINO KAHAME MSISKA KATA ENDRŐDI KATHERINE CHILDS LAURA WILLEMS LEAH OATES LUCY LU MARC DANIEL DELLEDONNE MARIANA TOPFSTEDT MELISSA EDEN MICAH KLEIN NICO GLAUDE NIKKI BAXENDALE NIKKI MIDDLEMISS RALPH NEVINS RICHARD MILLER THU HO VANESSA PEJOVIC WALTER RAEMISCH WAYNE FISHER XIATONG CAI + MORE!

Check it out online: photoed.ca/digital-issue

“THEY PAVED PARADISE, PUT UP A PARKING LOT.”

A VIEW TOWARD THE ATHABASCA GLACIER LEFT: R.C. McDonald, 1938, Stn. 40, 31 E, The Mountain Legacy Project & Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada.

– JONI MITCHELL

RIGHT: Mountain Legacy Project Field Team, Stn. 40, July 9th, 2024.

BY CASSANDRA SPIRES

The Mountain Legacy Project is a collection of some of the most urgent and compelling photographic representations of time. Directed by Eric Higgs and founded by Higgs and Jeanine Rhemtulla, the project’s mandate is to “explore changes in Canada’s mountain landscapes over time through photographic comparisons.”

The project is home to a collection of over 120 000 historical mountain photographs from nineteenth- and early twentiethcentury systematic surveys, 20 000 of which are available online, as well as over 10 000 new comparative photographs. Participants both care for the archival collection and build on it, revisiting the coordinates of historical images to create new comparison images.

While the project’s primary contributors are graduate students, members also include research assistants, external contractors, and volunteers. Katelyn Fryer, the project’s archivist and librarian who assisted with this article, began as a research assistant.

The work has many aims, but a core aim is to document the effects of climate change and to make the findings as widely accessible as possible. The website features a tool called Explorer, which enables users to peruse the collection using an interactive map that spans Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon. A map is populated by clickable “stations,” which are the sites of the

This feature was produced with the support of the Photographic Historical Society of Canada. www.phsc.ca

photographic pairs in the collection. Browsing through the stations, users will find stark visual contrasts between the historical mountain photographs and their contemporary counterparts.

Recently, the field team had the opportunity to re-photograph the Athabasca Glacier, located at Station 40. A photograph by R.C. McDonald in 1938, more than 85 years ago, clearly demonstrates the marked change. Ten years ago, Bill Graveland wrote an article titled “Athabasca glacier melting at ‘astonishing’ rate of more than five metres a year,” which posited that the glacier may disappear completely within a generation. This visual comparison provides alarming evidence of the rapid recession.

Looking forward, members of the Mountain Legacy Project, currently based at the University of Victoria, are working to rephotograph early twentieth-century images of Jasper National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park through partnership with the Stoney Nakoda First Nation. Mountain Legacy Project also works in close partnership with Library Archives Canada to digitize and care for the collection. The Mountain Legacy Project, founded in 1998, continues to grow and build on its body of work, creating visual comparisons both powerful and alarming that serve as a call to action for the viewer.

mountainlegacy.ca

Lee Miller, Pidoux Hats [with original markings, Vogue Studio, London, England], 1939, chromogenic print (printed 2023) © Lee Miller Archives, England 2024

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