Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival Primary Exhibition

The Art Museum – University of Toronto, May 6th/15 to July 30/16

Curated by Jessica Bradley

Presented in both galleries that comprise the new Art Museum, Counterpoints gathers more than 100 images from over 20 private collections, revealing a remarkable breadth and depth of interest in photography in this city. The exhibition has evolved through the generosity of passionately committed collectors who granted the removal of works from their personal domestic and artistic spheres, allowing them to be seen by the public—many for the first time in Toronto. Images are assembled by visual affiliation and recurring subjects, which are conceived differently by photographers in time, cultural and social contexts, and through changing technologies. Counterpoints proposes a view of photography—and some of its signal historical and contemporary transitions—that is, like the daily experience of images, ultimately heterogeneous and non-linear.

So wonderful to have been included in this exhibition curated by David Campany at Le Bal in Paris. Below is a link to the exhibition and a book (published by Mack) which includes a fantastic essay by Campany.

Dust – unwanted, inevitable, destructive – is the great suppressed substance of the modern age. The world of order and hygiene attempts to banish dust yet it will always return.

“…the book somehow wends its way to aerial reconnaissance photography, abstract landscapes, forensics, American dust storms, artists’ videos and the Iraq War. The cumulative effect is brilliant, almost novelistic, and the book comes with a removable insert featuring an equally brilliant essay by Campany.”       

Teju Cole, The New York Times   

Curator Tamara Bergmans has assembled this exhibition to celebrate FoMu’s 50th Anniversary as one the world’s great photographic museums.  She has also produced a richly illustrated catalogue with contributions from Anne Deckers, Paul Messier and A.D. Coleman.

FoMu is an amazing museum and this exhibition/catalogue draws from a wealth of material in its collections.