photography exhibit – The Concordian

In this day and age people live their lives with eyes closed, traversing the cities in which they inhabit by hurrying from one destination to the other. There is an entire world behind the scenes which we do not see. The world where beauty can be found in a decaying building that has lost its glory. A world where peace nestles in the image of a girl cradling an axe. This is the world that Jonah Migicovsky captures in his photographs.

In a time saturated with superficiality, retouched photos and filtered Instagram snapshots, Migicovsky’s photography is a refreshing slice of honesty. In many of our lives we are constantly in a desperate search for escape, for a good time. We are afraid of the darker side of life. The impoverished side. Migicovsky captures the reality of this life.

Migicovsky draws our attention to the extreme self medication of our era. His still life series entitled Sweet-Tooth depicts candy in place of narcotics. Candy on a table, carefully cut into lines, ready to snort. A pipe filled with Pop-Rocks, ready to smoke. Migicovsky explained how he uses photography to unveil the aspects of his life (and possibly the aspects of our own lives) that are less accepted by society. This series takes time to truly look at the type of crutches we use to prop ourselves up in our daily lives.

In his series Alley Cats Migicovsky explores the vistas of Montreal through the eyes of street artists. Capturing them at work and in their element, he offers another perspective on what many people consider vandalism. Migicovsky believes that “graffiti can give a second life to forgotten and dilapidated buildings.” These monuments that are unnoticed and slowly decaying are given attention when showcased as a canvas for others artwork.

Migicovsky’s stroke is broad and all encompassing moving from still life, to portraits, to controversial visual commentary, such as his picture of topless Barbie dolls. Through this photograph (which is a call out to society’s fixation on perfection) and many others, we are invited by Migicovsky into his world.

Frustrated by the superficiality of society, Migicovsky’s work rests on the tangible. Believing that “the negative does not lie,” Migicovsky employs traditional photographic techniques and manual equipment. He is not interested in digital imagery. Migicovsky says he uses traditional film in order to highlight how life is saturated by media that it is edited to such an extreme that what is real has become subjective. When capturing images on film rather than on memory cards you always have the negative: that roll of film which preserves an actual event; a girl with beautiful eyes, a building brought to life through someone else’s art or a gun held loosely in someone’s hand.

By looking at Migicovsky’s work we are asked to pause. Through his lens we are given a raw look at our lives: the places we go, the things we do and the things we pass by. An antidote to the airbrushed facsimile of what is expected from art, Migicovsky challenges what we have come to accept.

Migicovsky is currently studying photography at Concordia. His full portfolio can be found at www.jonahmigicovsky.com

There’s a very human touch to the éLoges s’expose (avec Inédits) photography exhibit that is occupying the George-Émile-Lapalme cultural space at Place des Arts. Martine Doucet, the photographer, has decided to showcase her love of women by building an exhibit in collaboration with famous “québécois” celebrities, depicting these actresses preparing to mount the stages of massive productions. Through door openings and even via close-ups, the photographer documents the preparation process necessary for these actresses to embody their roles on stage.

Doucet had actually published this collection of photographs as a coffee table book, with the publishing house Les éditions du passage back in 2006. The book is stunning, but the selection of photographs that is being showcased in the actual exhibit also includes brand new snapshots from the show Les Belles-Soeurs, the theatre adaptation of Michel Tremblay’s play, which is currently under production at Le Monument National. The experience is also utterly incomparable when you blow these pictures up to a bigger size, as opposed to having them in a smaller format of a book.

Essentially, the exhibit is quite particular in the sense that it plays on the development of the antithesis of the photographic portrait. Doucet delves into the world of intimacy of all these women, who welcome her into their space as they prepare to be seen by thousands. The transformation that some of these actresses undergo is remarkable; layers of colorful makeup and outrageous wigs can be seen throughout the entire exhibit. The common theme in all the images on display is the mirror. Doucet clearly enjoys exploring the moment of introspection and dialogue with oneself that occurs when we see our reflection in the mirror.

Though the exhibit is by no means immense, the content of the pictures is incredibly lively. Sophie Cadieux, Guylaine Tremblay, Anne-Marie Cadieux and so many more familiar faces contribute to making this exhibit so alluring. Doucet is, in that respect, a genius. Human curiosity will always get the better of us and we are all curious about what’s required for these women to invest themselves so profoundly in the magic of theatre. The affinities that exist between the photographer and her subjects are almost palpable, which is so refreshing in this age of distanced, contemporary art.

There’s also something more personal in the works. Doucet does an excellent job at catching some of these grandiose artists in a moment of vulnerability, as they contemplate the task that awaits them on stage, the shoes of the characters they’re about to fill. Sometimes exhaustion looks like it may get the best of them. Other times, the photographer’s lens is filled with the amused look of one of these women reading a line in their script that particularly pleases them. There’s no camouflage here and that was clearly the photographer’s goal: total transparency.

éLoges s’expose (avec Inédits) can be viewed until Dec. 2 at Place des Arts, in the George-Émile-Lapalme cultural space. For more information visit pda.qc.ca