Photogenic Montreal
Subtitle: activisms and archives in a post-industrial city
By: edited by Martha Langford, Johanne Sloan
Series: McGill-Queen's/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation studies in art history; McGill-Queen's/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation studies in art history
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 2021
Place of publication: Montreal; Kingston; London; Chicago
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780228009788
Subjects: Architecture and photography; Art and photography; Art and architecture; Photography; Pictorial works; Architecture et photographie; Art et photographie; Art et architecture; Photographie; Aspect social; Social aspects
Description: "The agency of photographs is a recurrent concern but one that is reshaped in the city. Whether in architectural records, social documentary, photojournalism, or artistic practice, photographic objects are embedded in urban contestation, aesthetically charged by artists, reinserted into social histories, and mobilized to imagine a future city. Photogenic Montreal takes a question initially posed by heritage debates--what does photography preserve?--and creates a rich conversation about the agency of the human actors before and behind the camera, and of the medium itself. The interplay of archives and activisms structures the book. Photographs that appear to be sealed off in newspapers, storage rooms, or archives accrue new meaning when they cross the threshold back into social spaces--the neighbourhoods, industrial buildings, and thoroughfares from where they came. It is through the reactivation of archival photographs that submerged traces of urban experience are discovered, iconic images and exhibitions have radicalized photographic preservation, and alternate histories of Montreal can be recounted. Multiple forms of activism complement this archival work. Beginning in the 1960s, community-minded and heritage groups responded to the tensions arising from urban reconstruction, gentrification, and the erasure of neighbourhoods; this activism also left its photographic traces. Attentive to the still-changing face of the city's architecture, neighbourhoods, and street life, Photogenic Montreal participates in debates about who the city belongs to, who speaks on its behalf, and how to picture its past and present."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Re-Activations: Alain Chagnon's Plateau-Mont-Royal in Translation / Martha Langford; title: Melvin Charney and Photography: "The Image Behind the Image" / Louis Martin; title: Through the Lens of Edith Mather: Photographing Demolition and the Transforming City / Tanya Southcott; title: Returning to the Ninth Floor: An Interview with Selwyn Jacob / Johanne Sloan; title: Is the Artist an Unreliable Archivist? Reflections on the Photographic Preservation of a Montreal Neighbourhood / Clara Gutsche; title: Post-industrialist Passions: Urban Exploration, Photography, and the Spirit of Place / Suzanne Paquet; title: Picturing The Old Architecture of Quebec: Ramsay Traquair and Cultural Conservatism, 1913-39 / Annmarie Adams; title: A Heuristic Archive: Jean-Paul Gill's Red Light Photographs / Philippe Guillaume; title: The Pastness of Allô Police / Will Straw; title: Architecture, Photography, and Power: Picturing Montreal, 1973-74 / Cynthia Imogen Hammond; title: Fading In and Fading Out: Negatives and Positives in the Photographic Afterlives of Ephemeral Site-Specific Installations by Martha Fleming & Lyne Lapointe / Martha Fleming; title: Erase and See: The Photogénie of a Metropolis in Progress / Martha Langford; title: Expo 67 and the Future of Montreal / Johanne Sloan.