MY PICKS: EXHIBITIONS - GALLERIES J THROUGH Z - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

MAY 2 - 30

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY: THOMAS A. EVERS, VIOLET FODER, CHRIS HARRISON, M GLORIA NIETO MONTERO, ELENA WILLIS

JUNCTION - ACADEMY OF REALIST ART

Foder’s project began with her fascination with the variations and interpretations of tarot cards. Using photography, she created a contemporary deck emphasizing female archetypes. For example, Foder has recreated the Hanged Man with a dominant/submissive motif and depicted the the Moon as a lunatic. Other cards reinterpreted include the Empress, the Lovers, the Star and the Sun. Curated by Colleen Johnston.

2968 Dundas Street W, Ste 200

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 2 - 31

BRIAN BARRER: PERCEPTION IS REALITY, REALITY IS PERCEPTION

JUNCTION - CORNERSTONE FINE FURNITURE

Barrer presents us with a visual feast of contradictions and photographic epigrams through the surreal juxtaposition of modernized nature and nature untouched. He invites you to explore his images where he presents reality as perception and perception as reality. Curated by Sue McClelland. Curated by Sue McClelland.

2886 Dundas Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 2 - 31

SANDI WHEATON: TOWN FOR SALE

JUNCTION - DEBORAH FRIESEN ARCHITECT INC.

Town for Sale compares the relationship between digital and film photography to the Interstate 40 and Route 66. Wheaton laments the digital transformation of photography that has made black-and-white infrared film obsolete. This is a nostalgic look at an era when memories were captured on grainy film negatives. From gas-guzzling convertibles to exploring the open road, time stands quietly still along the dusty California stretch of Route 66. Curated by Deborah Friesen.

386 Pacific Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 2 - 31

IDEAL LANDSCAPES: MARK KASUMOVIC, VANESSA PHILLIPS

JUNCTION - FOREVER INTERIORS

Ideal Landscapes addresses the sentimental idea of the untouched landscape—a landscape more resembling a stage than the real world. In these photographs, scenes are carefully composed and lit to remove them from their natural surroundings, offering a new perspective on the natural landscape. This series questions the true meaning of the ideal landscape. Curated by Martin Scott.

Image by Mark Kasumovic, Ideal Landscape #1, 2008

2903 Dundas Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 2 - 31

MARY FARMILANT

JUNCTION - POST & BEAM RECLAMATION

The examination of objects and the spaces they occupy is a predominant theme in the work of Farmilant. She studies objects and their surroundings in order to reconstruct a picture of life in the past. These images explore perception, memory and narrative, and articulate the idea that human presence is part of the history of now uninhabited or forgotten spaces. Curated by Doug Killaly.

2869 Dundas Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 29 - JUN 30

ANDREW MOORE: RUSSIA, BEYOND UTOPIA

KOFFLER CENTRE OF THE ARTS, LOGGIA GALLERY

The Canadian debut of vibrant images of post- Communist Russia by acclaimed New York-based photographer, Andrew Moore. Modern Russia is a land of myriad selves. The vestiges of decadent Imperial Russia contrast with the remnants of the Socialist dream to form a complex backdrop for an emerging Capitalist Democracy. Moore captures the convergence of these past, present, and wished-for utopias in his portrait of this elusive country. The exhibition is part of kofflerkultura, a new series highlighting Russian culture & the Russian- Jewish experience in the Former Soviet Union, Israel and North America. Curated by Evelyn Tauben.

4588 Bathurst Street

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 11 - 31

JESSE JACKSON: USONIA ROAD: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT IN THE POST-FORDIST CITY

LARRY WAYNE RICHARDS GALLERY

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian projects were designed in response to the needs of a burgeoning middle class that emerged during the Fordist economy of the mid-20th century. Both Ford and Wright had totalizing visions for society that persist today in fragmented forms. By presenting a selection of Wright’s work within its contemporary context, no matter if it is decayed or renewed, Jackson reveals the tension between visionary architecture and the evolving urban landscape.

230 College Street

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 6 - 24

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION

LAUNCH PROJECTS

You Say You Want a Revolution (a phrase first expressed by John Lennon in reaction to the Vietnam war), explores the nature of revolutions. Spinning the 2009 CONTACT theme at a pivotal time technologically, politically and environmentally, this group exhibition examines responses to change that occur within times of revolution. Juried by Lise Beaudry.

404 Adelaide St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

SCOTT CLARKE: PRIDE!

LENS FACTORY

Pride contains 25 intimate street portraits photographed between June 2006 and June 2007. All images were photographed using available light and a 4x5 view camera. All subjects appear before you in their PRIDE!

1040 Queen St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

GRAHAM DALIK, JENNIFER MORDEN

MARBEN RESTAURANT

Dalik and Morden explore aspects of everyday life around the globe and also concern themselves with the changing role and position of the photographic medium. While conscious of the opportunities and potential offered by digital technology, both photographers are aware of the danger that wholesale revolution and replacement presents to previous photographic supplies. Their work explores connections and dialogue between the old and the new, and seeks to reflect emerging possibilities within the rapidly changing medium.

Image by Graham Dalik & Jen Morden, 2008

488 Wellington St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 13 - JUN 7

JJ LEVINE: QUEER PORTRAITS

O'CONNOR GALLERY

Queer Portraits is a series of vibrant colour photographs by Montreal artist Levine. This ongoing project addresses issues surrounding gender, sexuality and queer space. Each studio-lit intimate portrait is taken in a different queer domestic environment. Queer Portraits explores the relationship between artist and subject. As Levine photographs people with whom she has a close relationship, each image reveals the strong element of trust that exists within this queer community.

145 Berkeley St., Ste 100

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 30 - MAY 23

MARK BOVEY: RESTORING THE LEDGER

OPEN STUDIO

Bovey’s large-scale, archival inkjet prints examine history from the industrial age to the present while questioning the state of Western capitalism. A production-age ledger/scrapbook acts as a metaphor for society in decay. Using digital and analog images, Bovey combines photography with drawing to suggest personal, universal and elemental worlds overlaying the debits and credits on the page. The history of printed technologies of the past 125 years—the ledger’s new digital versions compared to the analogue— emphasizes the speed of progress. Curated by Astrid Ho.

401 Richmond St. W, Ste 104

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 15

ADAM KRAWESKY: INSTILLS

PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY AT CAFE BERNATE

Patrick Mikhail Gallery presents a series of public interventions by Krawesky, who creates images of anonymous figures engaging with the city. Viewers are inspired to reflect upon the ways that people interact with their urban environment. Maps of the intervention sites can be obtained at Café Bernate—which also serves as a starting point for a tour of the sites—or online.

1024 Queen Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 19 - JUN 13

STORIES: TYLER GREY, MATTEW STYLIANOU, NATASHA V

PIXEL GALLERY

For Stories, a group of photographers were invited to create a series of immersive photo-based narratives using the experimental application Photosynth as a creative tool. In Photosynth, every click of the mouse changes the image, uncovering new emotions and perspectives, creating new ways to view and interact with photography. These images transcend still photography; discover their stories. Curated by Steve Di Lorenzo.

Image by Tyler Grey, Sociopath, 2008

156 Augusta St

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

L. E. GLAZER : THE FRINGE PROJECT

THE STOREFRONT STUDIO

The Fringe Project explores the physical manifestation of the human spirit through suspended moments of dancing and singing. Theatrical interpretations of everyday life and emotion are translated into compositions of light, form and colour. Enjoy a glimpse into the creative complexities of the human soul. All Images were photographed during the 2008 Toronto Fringe Festival production of Wild About Harry.

3293 Dundas Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

LAURIE KANG: THREE BROTHERS

TINKU GALLERY

A trio of real-life brothers performs for the camera, creating a surrealism that merges fact and fiction. Kang explores the psychology and dynamics of blood relations with Three Brothers, curiously photographing her father and his brothers. Curated by Amrita Chandra.

437 Roncesvalles Ave, Ste 107

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - SEP 8

PORTRAITS

TORONTO PEARSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Fitzgerald and MacInnis imbue their photographic subjects with a sense of beauty and gravitas. Fitzgerald’s photographs provide an intimate view of beekeeping while MacInnis’ farm animal portraits capture the sometimes disconcertingly human individuality of each creature. Their portraits inspire meditation on our increasingly disconnected and ambivalent relationship with animals and the natural world. Curated by Lee Petrie.

Image by Rob MacInnis, Opening Night, 2008

Hwys 427 and 401

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 7 - 30

BREAKDOWN: GRAYDON SHEPPARD, ROBYN CUMMING, KATYA DOLEATTO, LINDSAY PAGE

XEXE GALLERY

Breakdown features a group of photo-based artists responding to the constantly evolving yet historically reminiscent nature of the still image. Cumming constructs the climax of moments of chaos and trauma depicting both the event and its aftermath. Doleatto constructs decadent stilllife scenarios and photographs their decomposition. Page creates a building/ un-building machine that exemplifies tedium and redundancy. Sheppard utilizes stereoscopy to create animated GIFs that exhibit a simultaneous spatial construction and deconstruction. Curated by Robyn Cumming.

Image by Graydon Sheppard, Untitled

624 Richmond Street W

MY PICKS: EXHIBITIONS - GALLERIES A THROUGH I - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

There are 220 open exhibitions during CONTACT. With so many shows I have picked only the exhibitions that I am interested in. Please check CONTACTs website to view hours open to the public.

I look forward to seeing Michael Willems exhibition. His work, although different in style and approach, reminds me of Nan Goldin's work. Both Willems' and Goldin's work explores the world of drugs and the people that inhabit them. These works are not meant to be pretty pictures.

APR 29 - MAY 10

MICHAEL WILLEMS: IV - INTRAVENOUS

*NEW*GALLERY

In this shocking photographic documentary that is ultimately a story of hope and a tribute to strength and love, Canadian photographer Michael Willems shows a world most of us will never see: the tough world of a Toronto drug den: a world of addiction, where free will has ceased to exist. Michael and the victims of addiction, who became his friends, share that dark world here - but this is a positive story: one of hope, strength, art; and one of eventual redemption and recovery.

906 Queen St West

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although I am gay myself, I have found in the past that gay male artists frequently focus on the nude, well-muscled male body. To be fair, I have often also found lesbian art focused on the spiritual (wiccan, pagan, goddess) or reference a lot of genitalia. Perhaps it is due to many artists being self-taught. Admittedly I am very critical of amateurish art. I am wondering if this is the case with this project. However this one image has me intrigued enough to go.

MAY 1 - 31

ZACHARY AYOTTE AND TED KERR: THIS IS HOW WE MADE LOVE

ACT (AIDS COMMITTEE OF TORONTO)

This is How we Made Love is an exhibition about two men growing apart before they grow together. This collection of Polaroids, camera-phone images, digital and film photographs reflect a summer of shared yet separate explorations into personal progress and social change. The photographs reveal two people maintaining intimacy without discarding their individuality. This exhibit was made possible in part by HIV Edmonton and the AIDS Committee of Toronto.

399 Church Street, 4th floor

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am weary of group exhibitions that are not curated. I am also suspect when words like diverse mediums and subject matter are used to describe the exhibition. Fortunately they chose an excellent image by Susanna Reisman to encourage people to visit the show.

APR 30 - MAY 22

HERE AND NOW

AGO ART RENTAL AND SALES GALLERY

Here and Now brings together several of Canada’s established and emerging photographic artists. Exploring their diverse uses of the medium and subject matter, the exhibition examines the current state of contemporary photography and reveals the wide scope of this art form.

Image by Susanna Reisman, Measuring Tapes #1, 2005 / 2008

481 University Ave

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I definitely want to see this show. Not because it's a loosely tied exhibition on the theme of the festival, Still Revolution, but because the work is completed by some of the youth in Toronto. I believe in supporting programs and encouraging youth in creative endeavours.

APR 30 - MAY 21

REVOLUTION: OUR TIME

FATHER JOHN REDMOND SS, LAKESHORE CI, LAMP - ASSEMBLY HALL

Young eyes showcase passion, chaos and tranquility in the images by youth from LAMP Community Health Centre and students from Lakeshore Collegiate Institute and Father John Redmond Secondary School. The revolution continues— evolution, revolution, it’s our time! Curated by Christian Bortey.

Image by Gavin Smith, Passenger, 2008

1 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 30

JEROME BOURQUE: STAND STILL

BASIA HOME

Basia Home is pleased to present Stand Still. This exhibition of ten large-scale images by Quebec artist Bourque represents the photographer’s desire to produce dramatized imagery from everyday scenarios. He uses mise-enscène to create images that exploit the possibilities of the photographic image. This process permits him to reference his own memories and amplify them in order to increase their imaginary potential. Curated by Basia Polowska.

163 Dupont St

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 13 - 24

MELISSA GENERAL: LONGING AND BELONGING

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Longing and Belonging examines the challenges facing a First Nations person who lives “off-reserve” while maintaining a strong attachment to their heritage and “home.” Raised on Six Nations Reserve, General focuses on identity in relation to understanding her place as a First Nations woman in an urban contemporary culture. The dresses sewn for her as a child by her mother are the starting point for a dialogue about her relationship to belonging.

1080 Queen Street W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 12 - JUN 11

ELDON GARNET: DOMINION AND CATEGORIES OF DISAPPEARANCE

CHRISTOPHER CUTTS GALLERY

Eldon Garnet creates photography that is predicated upon constructing a series of images to frame an abstract narrative about our current social, political and economic environments. In Dominion, as in much of Garnet’s work, the polarities of beauty and threat, rapture and effrontery, confront each other. Pushing the boundaries of photographic depiction, Garnet presents metaphoric constructs for the individual condition, which is fragile and precarious in our current cultural moment. He creates iconic images that are lyrical yet threatening – the individual in a struggle against an undefined violence, or the body under attack. In one image, two men fight violently, set against the background of Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Toronto Dominion Centre; in another photograph, a lone man immersed in a river struggles with the heavy current. We are confronted with the hope of a future in the difficulty of the moment.

Based in Toronto, Garnet has established an internationally recognized artistic practice, working as a multi-media artist and writer since the 1970s. Surveys of his sculptures and photographic work have been held at the National Gallery of Canada (CMCP) in Ottawa, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto and the Centrum voor Fotografie in Amsterdam.

21 Morrow Avenue

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - JUN 15

JES SACHSE : ALLEVIATE

COME AS YOU ARE

The gaze has long defined the depiction of physical disabilities, from Vaudeville to the medical text. Stereotypes exist as flattened notions molded by the viewer. Alleviate is a series of images— some playful, some provocative—that form an unapologetic narrative told from the viewpoint of the subject. Juxtaposing recognizable archetypes with self-representations, this series provides the observer with an invitation to take a fresh look.

701 Queen St. W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 7 - MAY 31

SAMER MUSCATI: THE MEN WHO KILLED ME

CRAIG SCOTT GALLERY

In the 1994 genocide that ravaged Rwanda, 500,000 women were raped. Fifteen years later, The Men Who Killed Me features 17 survivors. While many still struggle to cope with enduring trauma, these survivors were empowered by communicating their experiences—a testament to the transformative potential of photography. Listed as a “must-see show", NOW magazine describes the exhibit as presenting a "sensitively modulated look at each woman’s continuing struggle to piece herself together after the atrocity.” Curated by Craig Scott.

95 Berkeley St

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

JOSHUA MELES: CHILDREN IN CONFLICT, ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

CREPES A GOGO

This exhibition documents Israeli and Palestinian children who have grown up entangled in war.

18 Yorkville Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 2 - 30

ROBERT BERLIN: PEOPLE'S DESIRE

DRABINSKY GALLERY

People’s Desire is a photographic compilation of Berlin’s recent journey through Burma—an ancient land of contrast and conflict where the collective spirit of a people is evident as culture and history clash with a ruthless military regime. Dignity overcomes deprivation and spirituality and lyrical beauty persist despite a devastated political landscape. This journey evoked more questions than it answered.

5A Hazelton Avenue

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

BARBARA MANNERS: THE MAKING OF A PHOTOGRAPH[ER]

EZRA'S POUND

The Making of a Photograph[er] is a series of black-and-white images rich in metaphor and symbol that chronicles Manners’ journey to becoming a maker of photographs. From a lone bud on the verge of blossoming, to a powerful cityscape, Manners’ photojournalistic portraits beautifully express the universal desire to realize one’s potential as well as portray the honesty of real life.

238 Dupont Street

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

RETOUR DE ROME: CLARA GUTSCHE, DAVID MILLER

GALLERY 345

In 2002, Gutsche and Miller photographed Rome over a period of six months. Retour de Rome is focused on a complex history marked by pervasive change. The work, though grounded in architecture, is chiefly about human relationships to man-made spaces and buildings. The images captured by the two photographers distill the chaos, richness and surfeit that is Rome, suspending moments in time and history.

345 Sorauren Avenue

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - 31

EXPOSED: INNOVATION, TRANSFORMATION, REVOLUTION

KATRINA JENNIFER BEDFORD, STEFAN BOUDREAULT, ALEX COLEY, LEILA COOLS, SALLY CUMMING, JEFFERY CUTLER, ALLAN DAVEY, DIANNE DAVIS, MATTHEW FUNG, RYAN FUNG, SARAH GILLETT, MARGARET GLEW, TAMMY HOY, GREG HUSZAR, JESSE COLIN JACKSON, SOUMEN KARMAKAR, AMEE KING, R. KOLEWE, MICHAEL KRAUSS, PHILIP LEPAGE, BRENT LEWIN, CHRISTOPHER MCLEOD, DONG-KYOON NAM, BEN NG, JENNIFER PAUL, DALE M REID, WILLIAM SELF, ADRIAN SMITH, OLENA SULLIVAN, MICHELE TARAS, ROSALIE VILLANUEVA, JUSTYNA WERBEL

GLADSTONE HOTEL

In keeping with CONTACT 2009’s thematic focus, Exposed showcases photographic works ranging from reportage to abstraction, documented fact to constructed fiction, and highlights both established and emerging contemporary photographers. The exhibition is co-produced by the Gladstone Hotel and SpeakEasy. Curated by David Brown and Chris Mitchell.

1214 Queen St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 7 - 31

RE:PRO: MICHELE CROCKETT, WALTER SEGERS

GLADSTONE HOTEL, ART BAR

Emerging artists Crockett and Segers explore the ideas of evolution, reproduction and revolution within society. Crockett addresses transitional stages within the life of a woman. Segers investigates the transformation of the male body through evolution, technology and robotics by romanticizing the industrial revolution and the next generation of androids.

1214 Queen Street W

OTHER FEATURE EXHIBITIONS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

APR 9 - MAY 31

AWASHAWAVE: LOUIS FORTIER, ANTONIA HIRSCH, YOUNG-SUP KIM, ARNOLD KOROSHEGYI, DIANE LANDRY, MICHAEL SNOW, KELLY WOOD

BLACKWOOD GALLERY

Awashawave, with an alliterative title that slips by, examines (conceptually, phenomenologically, politically) the fruitful tensions between the still and moving image. This group exhibition presents figurative and literal interpretations of inundation and the perceptual tensions that result from being one amongst the many.

Examining facets of the concept of being flooded, awashawave presents a selection of works that embodies the shift from the single image to the series, from a discernable point to a dense mass: a washing machine turned into a praxinoscope (Landry); an audio work utilizing shortwave radio signals (Snow); ceramic objects made of white speaker wire that emit sounds of washing (Kim); images produced by a home-built scanner-camera that fuse digital technology and 19th-century photographic techniques (Koroshegyi); audio tracks converted into dense black and white “sonic” images (Wood); a video projection of someone doing the “wave” in an empty stadium (Hirsch); and a series of abject self-portraits rendered in wax (Fortier). By engaging in seemingly anachronistic investigations, these artists offer fresh contemporary perspectives on the significance of image production, perception and reception. Curated by Christof Migone.

Image by Arnold Koroshegyi, Rupture 1, 2008

3359 Mississauga Road N, (Offices CCT Building 3021), Mississauga

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 18 - MAY 30

RAFAEL GOLDCHAIN

O BORN CONTEMPORARY

At first glance, Rafael Goldchain’s photographs appear to be traditional family portraits from the early 20th century. However after closer inspection, we discover that our expectations have been surreptitiously subverted. The products of considerable research and conceptual rigour, Goldchain’s photographs are self-portraits: detailed reenactments of his familial and cultural history. They begin to take form as the artist poses for the camera in full costume and makeup. Using digital technology, he seamlessly manipulates DNA and history to present us with a gallery of rogues, beauties, geeks and philosophers. Looking at his avatars and digital revenants, we barely recognize the slightest trace of the self he has chosen to portray.

Connecting fragments of information gathered about the lives of his Eastern European Jewish grandparents and their families, while acknowledging the impossibility of reconciliation, I Am My Family reflects a way of both mourning and remembering. In a further act of transformation, as if to fill a great void of information, Goldchain has created additional members of a chosen family who are completely fabricated. Prompted by the artifice used in his invocation of bloodlines, we are left to ponder our collective history of fragments. Curated by P. Elaine Sharpe.

710 Yonge Street, Upstairs

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 29 - MAY 31

DONALD WEBER: THE DRUNKEN BRIDE, RUSSIA UNVEILED

PIKTO

The Drunken Bride, Russia Unveiled, a series of photographs captured during the last three years by Donald Weber, reveals the enduring tragedy that has resulted from Stalinist-era corrective labour camps known as Gulag. At the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917, approximately 16 thousand people lived in Czarist prisons. Two years later, an estimated 70 thousand men, women and children had been sentenced to live in the labour camps under the Bolsheviks. While estimates vary, it is said that as many as 40 million people were absorbed into the Gulag system before it was abolished in 1960. Today, many Gulag survivors and their descendants still maintain a bleak existence in remote wastelands.

Weber documents the complex aftermath of the Gulag: the beautiful forested sites where prisoners were shot and disposed of; the forgotten, aging survivors who continue a daily struggle for survival; the network of prisoners, known as Zeks, that flaunt elaborate tattoos whose symbology dates back to the early 19th century.

Originally from Toronto, Donald Weber is an award-winning photographer currently dividing his time between Moscow and Kiev. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 and a World Press Award, he is represented by VII Network. Curated by Johan H. Campbell.

55 Mill St Building 59 -103

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 30 - MAY 26

ANDREW WRIGHT: STILL WATER

PEAK GALLERY

Multimedia and photographic artist Andrew Wright creates a particular kind of imagery that both identifies and challenges conventional uses and understandings of photographic practice. In Still Water, his new photo-sculptural series, he continues his interest in probing the way in which imaging technologies mediate meaning. Wright has explored antique optical devices, such as the camera obscura, as well as contemporary electronic strategies to question conventional approaches to image making and interpretation. Wright’s subjects vary, but they often take on traditional tropes (landscape, portraiture, the natural world, the cinema) to create perceptual bridges that examine the very conditions of image production. The artist sees the seemingly inevitable demise of traditional photographic techniques as problematic, and the beginning of a void. Therefore, photographic “blackness” has become increasingly important in his investigations.

Using images of an endless waterfall at night, Wright’s new work posits an experience of the photographic that sits mid-way between picture plane and object in the round. The photographs are simultaneously recognizable representations that make use of perspectival space, and two-dimensional images of pattern and hue that occupy the real space of the viewer. They become forms of the here and now while referring to an uncertain elsewhere.

23 Morrow Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 20

SUSAN DOBSON: RETAIL

THE DEPARTMENT

Susan Dobson’s recent body of work, Retail (2008) continues her exploration of architecture and land use in the suburban landscape. In this work, she examines the makeshift nature of retail architecture and consumer culture’s dependence on the automobile. The series of large, colour inkjet prints depict franchise retail outlets set against optimistic blue skies and vast, deserted parking lots. The structures are digitally masked with an asphalt colour. The resulting large gray boxes highlight the unimaginative and provisional designs of big retail stores, while the empty lots, stripped of cars (and hence of purpose), are transformed into urban wastelands. Dobson’s images foreshadow the future of temporary architecture and of rampant consumerism during a time of economic uncertainty and growing environmental awareness. Seen within this context, writes Robin Metcalfe, “Dobson’s ghostly big-box stores glisten like a digital mirage, prescient images of a doomed landscape.” The photographs describe the future perfect – that which will have been – an ominous future, cast back in time.

1389 Dundas St W

WAS PM STEPHEN HARPER IN THE LOO DURING PHOTO-OPS AT THE G20 SUMMIT? ?

I had a good laugh when I heard today that it was suggested that Harper was 'in the loo' on April 3 during a photo-ops for the G20 Summit. Of course this is old news but it's new to me:

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS FROM THE TORONTO STAR: LES WHITTINGTON - OTTAWA BUREAU - APRIL 3

Ridiculed Harper denies he was in the bathroom.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's carefully cultivated image with the international media took a bit of a flushing yesterday.

After days of pounding the drums on international television, talking up the healthy state of Canadian banks and making the case for a Canadian economic rebound, Harper became the talk of the G20 summit when he missed the official group summit photo.

The verdict in the British press? Harper was in the bathroom.

The Prime Minister was slated to stand next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

An aide later said Harper was being briefed on the progress of the conference by Canadian officials.

Within hours, the incident flared into a bit of an international story.

The BBC reported Harper was unable to pose because he was "in the loo."

The BBC's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders, blogged about the incident and the "official explanation" that Harper was "in the bathroom." Flanders jokingly added she suspected foul play "given Canada's squeaky clean record" in the current financial crisis and that Harper would be forced to stand behind "the pot plant" for the re-take.

The Guardian's live blog on the summit cited the disparaging tone of comments on a Canadian news website, wryly noting: "Don't fancy the Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper's chances of re-election much after his ill-timed toilet break."

In the U.S., the TV show Good Morning America said Harper had been in the bathroom and nobody noticed. Even the staid Wall Street Journal mentioned the incident on its economics blog.

The Prime Minister's Office went on the defensive. Aides were at pains to explain away any embarrassment.

"I don't think any leader came here for photo ops," said Dimitri Soudas, a Harper spokesperson, who noted the BBC had retracted its claim of a mis-timed Harper bathroom break.

"World leaders are here to discuss very serious matters while we go through the biggest global crisis in a generation."

Later, Harper himself offered that explanation in response to a question at his closing press conference. "I was detained by discussions with some officials," he said, adding he's been at enough international meetings "to know that there's always another photo op."

In London, G20 officials decided to re-shoot the group photo anyway so Harper could be included.

This time, it was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who were absent. There was no plan for a third attempt at the group shot.

SARA ANGELUCCI: REGULAR 8 - FEATURE EXHIBITION OPENING - MAY 9 - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

MAY 9 - 30

SARA ANGELUCCI: REGULAR 8

WYNICK/TUCK GALLERY - NORTH GALLERY SPACE

OPENING MAY 9, 2 - 5PM

Sara Angelucci’s Regular 8 returns film to its origin in the still image, while focusing on 1950s-era nuclear families. A period characterized by growing consumption, the 50's also witnessed the spread of eight-millimeter home movies. Playing on the idiosyncratic interference caused by Kodak’s punch-hole tagging system – a series of numbers appearing across the end frames of each film – Angelucci makes poignant reference to the last moments of such movies. Preserved, yet already in the process of dissolution, these images describe moments of in-between. Evoking film theorist Andre Bazin’s characterizations of photography and film, these photographic moments are suspended like “insects in amber” while shifting perpetually between frames as “change mummified.”

Referencing scenes from found and borrowed films, Angelucci’s staged photographs portray celebrations and outings – where family and friends are often recast in idealized, cinematic versions of themselves. Angelucci both celebrates and interrupts the formation of such identities, pointing to the tensions that may exist outside of the frame. Using the qualities of analogue photography as the basis for a hybrid digital practice, Angelucci dips into the wells of multiple processes. In their convergence, she captures the still revolutionary force of the “mirror with a memory” to fascinate, disturb and seduce. Katy McCormick

Generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and Cabaret Vintage.

401 Richmond Street W - Ste 128

FEATURE EXHIBITION OPENINGS - MAY 8 - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

MAY 1 - JUN 6

SANAZ MAZINANI: IRAN REVISITED

TORONTO IMAGE WORKS GALLERY

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 8PM

Sanaz Mazinani’s colour diptychs and marquee photographs explore the physical landscape and human faces of contemporary Iran, her country of origin. Each image contains its own narrative qualities and together they create a complex portrait of the country. The recent history of Iran familiar to most outsiders begins with the Islamic Revolution, followed by the resulting social restrictions successive leaders have imposed on the country. This aspect of history is incomplete and offers only a narrow view of Iranian culture.

2009 marks the 30-year anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Today more than half of Iran’s population is under the age of 25, and many among this new generation of Iranians are pushing against boundaries. Some fight against the clergy to hold on to their more liberal family traditions, while others fight against Western popular culture as they struggle to find their own identities. The photographs in this series give us a privileged glimpse of the everyday life in modern Iran. From painted portraits of young martyrs slowly peeling from the exterior walls of mosques, to a still life of the architectural remnants of the Persian Empire, these photographs depict the different ideologies that overlap in Iran’s contemporary landscape. Curated by Bonnie Rubenstein.

80 Spadina Ave, Ste 207

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

MAGNUM PHOTOS: STATES OF CONFLICT

BRUNO BARBEY, THOMAS DWORZAK, STUART FRANKLIN, MAGNUM IN MOTION, SUSAN MEISELAS, LARRY TOWELL

CONTACT GALLERY

OPENING MAY 8, 7 - 10PM

Magnum Photos: States of Conflict examines some of the watershed moments of civic transformation over the last 40 years. Since 1948, Magnum photographers have been depicting conflict around the world, and the collective’s force reflects photography’s enduring power as a tool for change. The images in this exhibition reveal the intrepid persistence and unique personal vision of their makers.

Bruno Barbey, a Frenchman born in Morocco, captured the turbulence of the May 1968 student protests and general strikes in Paris that led to the collapse of French president Charles de Gaulle’s government. Barbey photographed the riots, occupations and street battles to communicate the urgency of this seminal point in time.

In 1979, American photographer Susan Meiselas documented the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. Twenty-five years later, she returned to the region with murals of images she made during the insurrection and installed them in the public spaces where the photographs were originally taken. Meiselas’ photographs capture the sites of collective remembrance she created in her project Reframing History.

Twenty years after Beijing's Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, Englishman Stuart Franklin’s iconic images are symbols of defiance and aggression. Franklin’s celebrated photograph of the infamous man standing before advancing tanks is among the world’s most recognizable photographs. His images encapsulate the magnitude of an insurrection that shocked the world.

Canada’s Larry Towell shows black-and-white photographs that depict anger and fear, aggression and assault. Reminiscent of his images of conflict in the West Bank, these images were captured while dodging hurtling rocks and flying tear gas canisters. Perhaps surprisingly, they portray the police and RCMP riot police confronting demonstrators opposed to the expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement in Quebec City, 2001.

Originally from Germany, Thomas Dworzak has documented the conflict in Chechnya, the crisis in Kosovo, the war in Macedonia and the revolutions in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, among many other tragic events. Unified by Dworzak’s finely tuned sense of colour, his photographs captured around the world possess an overwhelming ability to illuminate humanity in states of conflict.

As an extension of the focus on conflict through still images, a series of short documentary films by Magnum in Motion – from photographers' behind-the- scenes, first-hand accounts to thematic essays – further convey the global experiences of the agency’s members. Reflecting complex histories, all of the images in this exhibition inform the way we see our evolving world.

Thomas Dworzak's work is presented in association with the Goethe-Institut Toronto.

Image by Stuart Franklin, China, 1989

80 Spadina Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUN 13

IN MAY (AFTER OCTOBER)

ANDREAS BUNTE (GERMANY), DUNCAN CAMPBELL (IRELAND/SCOTLAND), THEA DJORDJADZE (GEORGIA/GERMANY), MATIAS FALDBAKKEN (NORWAY), CLAIRE FONTAINE (FRANCE), LUCA FREI (SWITZERLAND/SWEDEN), CYPRIEN GAILLARD (FRANCE), LUIS JACOB (PERU/CANADA), PIA RONICKE (DENMARK), NORA SCHULTZ (GERMANY)

GALLERY TPW

OPENING MAY 8, 7 - 9PM

In May (After October) takes its title from two revolutionary moments in Western history: Russia’s October Revolution of 1917 and the French student protests of May 1968. It also makes reference to the social and political change that many people hope will be a result of the election of Barack Obama in the US. This widespread call for ongoing change provides a platform for us to consider the political efficacy of aesthetic practice. In particular, this exhibition focuses on photographic images, videos and films that share in common an interest in the articulation of a productive refusal. From virtual abstraction to appropriated archival images and experiments with narrative structure, this international group of artists moves beyond the creation of easily consumed or didactic artworks. Together their works raise questions, asking how we can find new ways to say “no” and formulate suggestions for political and aesthetic alternatives. Organized by Kathrin Meyer and Tim Saltarelli.

Image by Andreas Bunte, Still from O.T. (Wohung), 2006

56 Ossington Ave

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 9 - JUN 6

JONATHAN TAGGART: SALT AND EARTH

RYERSON GALLERY

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 9PM

Jonathan Taggart’s Salt and Earth (2008) offers an impressionistic portrait of Whole Village, a contemporary farming cooperative whose biodynamic practices offer an alternative to dominant agribusiness models. Revolutionary in their “off the grid” objectives, communal farms such as Whole Village rely on the pooling of member resources to achieve selfsufficiency. In a late-capitalist society, the collective’s lifestyle is exceptional in its means, aims and commitment to sustainability.

Shot from the hip and presented in rich black-and-white tones, this series depicts a community’s embrace of ancient farming practices, extraordinary in today’s short-term gain/hightech culture. Slow, hand-wrought and labor intensive, here everything old is new, echoed even in use of analogue photography. Sensual, close in, bathed at times in sparkling luminosity, at times in inky shadow, these scenes move us along with the cycle of the seasons. Simple acts and subtle tensions play out through the everyday lives of the community. Family-like, yet not just one family, the collective comes together and moves apart. In Salt and Earth, the members of the collective stand before us, quiet revolutionaries in the face of environmental peril, suggesting what may be a way forward. Katy McCormick

80 Spadina Ave., Ste 305

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUN 27

CLOSE DISTANCE: BECKY COMBER, DARREN HARVEY-REGAN, VIRGINIA MAK, ANDREA MIHAI, DARREN RIGO, CAROLINA SAQUEL

HARBOURFRONT CENTRE, MAIN GALLERY, YORK QUAY CENTRE

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 10PM

Close Distance presents a contemporary photographic view on the human-altered landscape, bringing together a range of carefully constructed landscapes by local and international artists. While we have become familiar with images that capture our destruction of nature, the images in Close Distance foster a quiet revolution in our awareness. The artists’ camera-constructed landscapes prompt understanding of the power of the photographic still through use of such strategies as performance, compressed space, selective focus and abstraction. Curated by Lena Oehmsen.

Image by Darren Rigo, Displacement #17, 2009.

235 Queens Quay W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUN 27

APRIL HICKOX: GATHER

HARBOURFRONT CENTRE - SERVICE CANADA WINDOW - YORK QUAY CENTRE

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 10PM

Gather is a scanned archive of clusters of decaying balloons found on the beaches of Toronto Island. Markers of a symbolic life passage, balloons live on in April Hickox’s work as the forgotten detritus of social occasions reborn in the digital world.

235 Queens Quay W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUN 27

JENNIFER LONG: SWALLOWING ICE

HARBOURFRONT CENTRE, PHOTO GALLERY, YORK QUAY CENTRE

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 10PM

Swallowing Ice is a series of short videos and photographs that examines women’s anxieties surrounding the decision to have children. Reviving the form of the silhouette to depict motherhood and its contradictions, Jennifer Long makes powerful use of the format’s ability to reveal the universal in the individual.

235 Queens Quay W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 8 - JUN 27

PETER SIBBALD: ELEGY FOR A STOLEN LAND

HARBOURFRONT CENTRE, ARCHITECTURE SPACE, YORK QUAY CENTRE

OPENING MAY 8, 6 - 10PM

From his ancestral home in Southern Ontario, Peter Sibbald presents landscape as a nexus of human will and nature. Elegy for a Stolen Land depicts a place where politics, spirituality, environmental science, commerce, social justice and philosophy collide.

235 Queens Quay W

FEATURE EXHIBITION OPENINGS - MAY 7 - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

MAY 7 - JUN 23

PAUL DE GUZMAN: PARASITE PARADISE: 1999-2009

BIRCH LIBRALATO

OPENING MAY 7, 5 - 8PM

Parasite Paradise: 1999-2009 presents two bodies of work Paul de Guzman produced at opposite ends of a decade, each an aspect of his investigations into forms of artistic quotation and parasitism. In de Guzman’s cut-up, altered magazine pieces produced in 1999, the printed content is subjected to a controlled form of physical deconstruction. In his current body of photographic work, early 20th-century architectural postcards are juxtaposed with corresponding architectural models rendered in Lego building blocks. Although most architectural photographs are intended to record the monumentality of human achievement, de Guzman’s photographs offer a different conceptualization of buildings as temporary and transient.

129 Tecumseth Street

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 7 - JUN 13

JAMES NIZAM: ANTEROOM

BIRCH LIBRALATO

OPENING MAY 7, 5 - 8PM

In his series Anteroom, James Nizam has turned the interiors of abandoned, soon-to-be-demolished homes into room-sized camerae obscurae. He achieves this by fitting a makeshift lens to a hole he made in a wall, or attached to a hole in garbage bags covering a window. He then photographs the results with a 35mm camera, creating chaotic-looking images that presage not only the photographed structures’ imminent destruction but also the tenuous future of analogue photography itself. Nizam’s work in this series suggests reasons for the pinhole camera’s increasing popularity: it’s a format that looks to the past as a way to consider the state of the medium today.

129 Tecumseth Street

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APR 30 - MAY 30

STILL MOTIONS: GWENËL BÉLANGER, ELINA BROTHERUS, LUCIA FEZZUOGLIO, BETTINA HOFFMANN, KEN JACOBS, KARL LEMIEUX, TUOMO RAINO, JUTTA STROHMAIER

GLADSTONE HOTEL 3 & 4 FLOOR

OPENING MAY 7, 6 - 10PM

Still Motions traces the tension between the still and the moving image, presenting works that critique the logic of traditional photography via its successor media, film and video. Each work contains a degree of stillness that is in some way destabilized to disrupt the notion of a photograph as a suspended moment in time. The interaction of the three media allow for hybrid forms of moving images to emerge, generating the uncanny within the familiar while adding a sensorial – even visceral – dimension to our appreciation of the still image.

Jutta Strohmaier and Ken Jacobs combine traditional image-making with new editing capabilities. Strohmaier creates a time-lapse out of single stills; Jacob scans old stereographic images to bring them, flickering, to life, animated by nonlinear editing software. Gwenael Belanger inverts the process, re-editing single-channel footage into a spiraling animation of stills. Tuomo Rainio recontextualizes the materiality of film by using computer software to capture the process of celluloid as it is exposed. Karl Lemieux and Lucia Fezzuoglio use a classic film processing technique to create an interactive piece that renders the projected light as material to be moved through. Curated by by Mark Andre Pennock, coordinated by Karen Kraven.

1214 Queen St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 7 - JUNE 6

M + M: GOOD TIMING / BAD TIMING

LAUSBERG CONTEMPORARY

OPENING MAY 7, 6 - 9PM

In Good Timing / Bad Timing, photographs and films take form as sequential compilations of many thousands of still images. For the series in front (2002), the German artist duo M + M (Marc Weis and Martin de Mattia) dissected television news reports and political broadcasts, such as Vladimir Putin’s 2007 speech at the Munich Conference on Security, to create works spanning the media of photography and film. What at first glance appears to be a complicated pattern of horizontal stripes is revealed to be the authority of television as a matrix of miniature stills upon closer inspection. Incorporating newsworthy spectacle from the last nine years and mixing military coverage with individual acts of violence, a magnitude of images reflecting the horrors of life every day are transformed into abstract images of colour and form.

In the series kurz vor fünf (shortly before 5) (2007), shimmering horizontal rows of still photographs are composed of M + M’s three-minute-long films made shortly before 5PM European Central Time. Capturing day-to-day activities in typical urban settings around the world, the works reflect the increasingly global flow of information and the limited ability of the individual to comprehend the whole. In a network of fleeting picture associations, M + M create an unnerving psychological commentary on contemporary urban life.

880 Queen St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

ELI PALMER, MIKE ROBINSON

FIRST REVOLUTION, 1839: DAGUERREOTYPES AND THE INTIMATE GAZE

CAMPBELL HOUSE MUSEUM

OPENING MAY 7, 7 - 9PM

First Revolution, 1839 brings the experience of the original “still revolution” to a public immersed in widespread technological and social change.

Daguerreotypes, the first publicly available photographs, were invented before the advent of electrical illumination and had revolutionary social consequences. Exposed on silvered copper plates, daguerreotypes are small in scale, yet powerful in effect. Best seen in the low light of interior spaces, this exhibition within the oldest remaining brick home from the Town of York recreates the intimacy of daguerreotypes’ original surroundings.

The exhibition features rare early daguerreotypes made in Toronto, from the collection of Steven Evans, and a selection of new daguerreotypes by Mike Robinson, the only photographer practicing this technique in Canada today. Robinson has produced new daguerreotypes especially for the exhibition. Displayed within the authentic surroundings of Campbell House – on a mantelpiece, by a bed, in a traditional wooden cabinet – the exhibition highlights the intimate relationship that occurs between the viewer and the photographic object. As daguerreotypes were sometimes viewed in stereoscope, there will be a reproduction stereoscopic machine for viewing a specially selected image. An exhibition in the19th-century ballroom explains the medium’s origins and celebrates the story of Eli Palmer, Toronto's first known daguerreotypist. Lecture by Mike Robinson, May 14, 8 pm, "Daguerreotypes, Past and Present." Curated by Liz Driver, Curator of Campbell House, in partnership with Mike Robinson.

160 Queen St W

MAY 7, 7PM

MAGNUM PHOTOGRAPHERS: PETER MARLOW, DAVID ALAN HARVEY AND CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON

LECTURES - THE DRAKE HOTEL

With powerful individual vision, Magnum photographers chronicle the world and interpret its people, events and issues. They will draw from their personal perspectives to create an engaging discourse on the role of image making in relation to this year’s festival theme Still Revolution.

Image by David Alan Harvey

1150 Queen Street W

PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

STILL REVOLUTION: RADICAL CHANGE WITHIN THE LANDSCAPE

Transforming urban spaces with photography, these site-specific installations throughout the city invite reflections upon the evolving nature of the photographic medium and the history of visual representation.

Presented from May 1 - 31 with the support of Hewlett-Packard (Canada) CO., BlackBerry, Beyond Digital Imaging, 3M, Genstar, Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

SHILPA GUPTA: DON'T SEE DON'T HEAR DON'T SPEAK

HARBOURFRONT CENTRE

Shilpa Gupta’s work subversively probes religion, race, class, gender and local situational politics. She provokes questions about our core beliefs, about how we think and who we are. Aiming towards the possibility of social change through art, Gupta offers critical opinions on a visually saturated society ruled by politics and commerce. She attempts to surpass the negative implications of nationalism by dissecting and re-presenting societal and individual structures and codes.

The principle to “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” was made popular in India by Gandhi in a speech that stood for values of positivism at the birth of a new nation. Gupta’s interpretation of this pictorial tenet – the three monkeys – in Don’t See Don’t Hear Don’t Speak (2008), suggests that the Gandhian theory of nonviolence and other dreamed-of principles, have been violated and broken. These images bring together Gupta’s concerns about social classification, and emphasize her conviction that power, politics and rapid globalization lead to social rupture and inequality. Gupta’s images at Harbourfront Centre address her examination of real and perceived borders and collapsed geographies resultant of globalization. The shipping container placed on the shore of Lake Ontario references the long-haul transportation of goods in contrast with the split-second transmission of the digital images from the artist overseas. This juxtaposition of the container and the banners reinforces Gupta's observation that Mumbai, India can seem closer to Toronto than to a remote village a few hundred kilometres away.

Gupta was born in Mumbai, where she currently lives and creates interactive video, websites, photographs, objects, sound and public performances. She has exhibited in a number of prestigious museums and galleries including the Tate Modern in London, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai and Delhi, the ICC in Tokyo, New Museum in New York and the Tamayo Museum in Mexico.

Presented in partnership with Harbourfront Centre.

231 Queens. Lakefront, between 207 & 231 Queen's Quay West

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

MICHAEL FLOMEN: EVENT IN THE LANDSCAPE

TORONTO PEARSON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - TERMINAL 1

As Marshall McLuhan once commented, “nobody can commit photography alone.” Michael Flomen is a photographer who collaborates with nature. Using available light to produce large-scale photograms (camera-less photographs) he captures the motion and effects of circling fireflies, flowing water and falling snow. In his abstract images created on light sensitive photographic paper, Flomen reveals a universe of occurrences. Working in Vermont and Quebec at night, Flomen places photo paper under water or on land amidst the climatic effects of nature. While Flomen’s approach is beyond his full control, he has mastered his technique to create astounding and powerful photograms from physical and natural phenomena.

Event in the Landscape produced from a selection of Flomen's photograms created during the last ten years, explores territories outside the confines of conventional photography. These digitized images, placed along the moving sidewalks at Pearson Airport’s Terminal 1, evoke the timeless qualities of the earth, the atmosphere and the solar system, set amidst the context of modern flight. While new technologies are redefining the content and process of photographic imagery in the 21st century, Flomen’s work recalls some of the earliest known photographic images – those produced by Henry Talbot Fox in the 1830s. Flomen’s imagery is grounded in the present day, reflecting what we do not normally see but intuitively recognize as familiar. His images emphasize the actions of light and the physics of space. In partnership with nature, he transforms the way the environment is perceived. John K. Grande

Michael Flomen lives and works in Montreal and is represented by Galerie Pangée. He has exhibited extensively throughout North America and Europe and his work is part of many collections internationally. Flomen’s work is included in the book The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography and is part of the related travelling exhibition.

Presented in partnership with the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

Hwys 427 & 401

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

GWENAËL BÉLANGER: LE GRAND FATRAS

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART COURTYARD

Gwenaël Bélanger characterizes his approach to image making to that of a bricoleur or handyman. His process begins with a vivid mental picture resulting from his close observation of the everyday world and its mundane objects. Like a construction site, his creative space expands as his images begin to take shape.

Using digital technology and photographic processes, Bélanger playfully and deftly assembles multiple stills into one picture plane. He manipulates forms and transforms objects, combining perspectives to reveal a fictitious point of view. Set within a “real” scene, his images of an imagined realm of possibilities maintain uncanny believability.

Echoing the parking lot setting, Bélanger’s image Le Grand Fatras (2005) (The Big Clutter) is reproduced as a massive mural and adhered to a building in the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art’s courtyard. Displayed in the same location as the CONTACT 2008 mural by Robert Burley that documented the demolition of a Kodak factory, Belanger’s image could be interpreted as the downpour that followed the explosion in Burley’s photograph. Objects propelled into the air, rebellious and playful, may well be understood as fallout from the demise of the photochemical era or representatives of the material glut of our existence. Open to interpretation, Bélanger’s work freezes moments in time, leaving the viewer to imagine the inevitable smash of his objects on the ground.

Montreal-based Gwenaël Bélanger has exhibited his work in numerous galleries and museums in Quebec including the Galérie de l’UQAM, le Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, le Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and internationally at the 11th Visual Arts Biennial in Pancevo, Serbia and Montenegro and the triennial l’Art qui fait boum!. He is represented by the Graff Galerie in Montreal. For CONTACT, Bélanger’s work is also in the exhibition Still Motions at the Gladstone Hotel.

Presented in partnership with MOCCA.

952 Queen St W, Toronto

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

DAN BERGERON: THE UNADDRESSED

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

For the better part of a decade, Dan Bergeron, AKA fauxreel, has been creating subversive, photo-based street works in Canada, England and the United States. Many of his projects tackle current social and political themes, while others re-contextualize the physical spaces that he liberates. Bergeron documents people who are rarely focused on by the mass media and challenges the predominant visual culture of advertising – its presence, location and scale.

The Unaddressed (2009) focuses on the under-housed, giving voice to their personal opinions. By photographing his subjects holding a cardboard sign that announces their concerns, the artist challenges preconceived notions of homelessness. Working against the minimal exchange between the homeless and passers-by, Bergeron’s images use the trope of the panhandling sign to disclose messages usually ignored or unspoken.

One pair of Bergeron’s giant figures stand sentinel outside the ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Inside the museum, life-sized figures appear on the walls, wheat-pasted throughout public spaces. They lead to Housepaint, Phase 2: Shelter, Canada’s first major exhibition of street art. By focusing on individual stories and the issues of homelessness and poverty, The Unaddressed serves as the final of five installations commissioned by the ROM’s ICC and as a public installation for CONTACT.

Dozens more life-sized figures are scattered throughout the streets of Toronto, grounding this project firmly within the street art genre. Pasted up in the streets, Bergeron’s images of the homeless take on a very different meaning: they represent their subjects within the places that they call home, and confront the viewer in the places in which we all collectively exist.

Presented in partnership with the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the ROM.

100 Queen's Park

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

LOUIE PALU: WAR ZONE GRAFFITI

QUEEN WEST AREA & ACE LANE

Guerrilla postering, like graffiti, randomly appears at the whim of anonymous scribes. In Louie Palu’s project, guerrilla postering also evokes the chaos of a war zone. Palu’s photographs of graffiti were taken in Afghanistan’s Southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand while he was embedded with Canadian, British and American troops in 2008. From commemorative memorials etched by soldiers into concrete barriers, to renderings of artillery drawn by civilians on the walls of abandoned houses, Palu’s work highlights the enduring consequences of naïve expression. It also draws attention to the force of the photographic medium, transposing cave-like drawings from a war zone to a city across the globe.

Far from Kandahar, Palu’s images infiltrate the relative peacefulness of Queen Street West and serve as cunning reminders of Canada’s present involvement in the war in Afghanistan. The Bovine, with its post-apocalyptic style synonymous with graffiti, is the project’s ground zero. Palu redeploys army latrine scrawl from Afghanistan in the club’s washrooms, and in the back alley he lines up a regimented display of the full series of images. Contextualizing his images of grafitti, Palu’s combat videography represents some of the most unique, in-depth, front-line coverage of the fighting since Canada began operations in Afghanistan. His coverage of Canadian military activity in Zhari District (considered to be the birthplace of the Taliban) feeds the worldwide desire for instantaneous video footage that is challenging the future of still photojournalism.

Palu was born in Toronto and is currently based in Washington. His work has been exhibited extensively internationally, and published in sources such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Newsweek, the Washington Post, The Walrus, MacLeans, The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. Palu is represented by ZUMA Press.

Ace Lane accessible via Ryerson Ave / Shanghai Cowgirl, 538 Queen St W

Screenings at The Bovine Thursday May 7, 14, 21, 28 at 10 PM (20 mins), 543 Queen St W

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAY 1 - 31

FASTWURMS, CHRISTIE PEARSON, MARK CLINTBERG, THIS DAY OF CHANGE - COURRIER JAPON MAGAZINE, ANNETTE MANGAARD, JOHN MARRIOTT, DARREN ODONNELL, GEORGETTE PETERS, MARTIN REIS, CHRYSANNE STATHACOS, HO TAM, CAROLYN TRIPP: WHAT'S YOUR REVOLUTION?

TTC SUBWAY STATIONS WITH SCREENS

Within a climate of massive social and political change, artists provoke, stimulate and motivate Toronto commuters with enlightened calls to action, and artistic responses to the idea of inciting revolt. What’s Your Revolution? presents photographic imagery every 10 minutes on a network of over 270 LCD screens in the Toronto subway system – a platform for the sharing of radical imaginings.

FASTWURMS’ project venerates the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada and the Cats Anonymous shelter of Orton, Ontario. John Marriott’s Dandelionheart takes commuters on a panoramic journey through space and time to a land wherein images of hope provide a backdrop for hypothetical futures. Kisses You, by Darren O’Donnell, radically proposes that making out should occur in public, and puts every TTC commuter in the position of a lover. Carolyn Tripp’s work is designed as a Public Service Announcement for her ongoing “Gaming and Tourism Commission” project, which addresses the intersection of zoological and municipal concerns.

Variously quiet, riotous, playful, radical, personal and far-reaching, the visual stories played out on the modern-day soapbox of our subway platforms have the power to evoke change.

Curated by Sharon Switzer and co-produced by Onestop Media Group and Art for Commuters.

JEFF HARRIS: ARTIST TALK - MAY 9 - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

MAY 9, 2 - 4PM

JEFF HARRIS: ARTIST TALK & SCAVENGER HUNT

If you have honed your skills on Where's Waldo and solved all those macro Whatsit puzzles from Owl Magazine then you will be a pro at searching amongst the 3,653 Self Portraits of Jeff Harris at Brookfield Place. Since January 1st, 1999, Harris has made at least one photograph of himself every day; soon after, he started his practice of posting them monthly on the internet. The photographer will be present to help with answers and also talk about his photographic process.

Brookfield Place, Allen Lambert Galleria - 181 Bay St - Free

MAGNUM PHOTOGRAPHERS: WORKSHOP SCREENING MAY 9 - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

MAY 9, 7 - 10PM

MAGNUM WORKSHOP SCREENING

PRESENTED BY MAGNUM PHOTOGRAPHERS: BRUNO BARBEY, CHIEN-CHI CHANG, DAVID ALAN HARVEY, ALEX MAJOLI, PETER MARLOW AND MARK POWER

This one night event is an opportunity to see the work produced by the students in the workshop. The Magnum Workshop Toronto is a five-day practice-oriented workshop that seeks to provide personal photographic growth in an intimate and intensive environment. A Magnum photographer, each with his own distinctive style and approach to photography, will lead a workshop. Students will select one of the following Magnum photographers as a workshop leader: Bruno Barbey, Chien-Chi Chang, David Alan Harvey, Alex Majoli, Peter Marlow and Mark Power.

Camera Bar - 1028 Queen St W

PANEL DISCUSSION - MAY 9 - CONTACT TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

MAY 9, 3PM

PHOTOGRAPHING AN ERA: THE '60S & '70S

RYERSON UNIVERSITY, ROGERS COMMUNICATION CENTRE

Ryerson University presents a unique opportunity to hear from three photographers that are represented in the Black Star Collection. In the 1960s and 1970s presidents, international leaders and celebrities worldwide opened doors to photojournalists and allowed unparalleled access to their family lives, homes, offices and movie sets.

Join us for a lively panel discussion with three photographers from these captivating decades. James Pickerell, Steve Schapiro and Fred Ward will discuss capturing history such as the Vietnam War, the civil-rights movement, mass political rallies and the Kennedy era. The event will be moderated by Don Snyder, Chair of the School of Image Arts.

Ryerson University, Rogers Communications Centre - 80 Gould St, Room RCC-204