Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival 2013 / Festival Launch
May 1, 2013, 7 – 10 p.m.
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
The city of Toronto comes into full bloom with the beginning of spring and the commencement of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival 2013. Photographic works will be on display at 175 venues all around the city of Toronto throughout the month of May. Within Contact’s seventeen-year history, the festival has grown to become the largest photographic festival in the world. Contact brings together both international and Toronto based photographers with the community in both public exhibitions and installations. The role of the community, both as participants and viewers in Contact, has been integral to the success of the festival. Darcy Killeen, the festivals executive director believes that the “function of art is to inspire the community.” Contact has enabled a closer relationship between photographers and the community, bringing to light ideas about the world and the city in which we inhabit.
Bonnie Rubenstein, the artistic director of Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival
This year the festival explores the theme: Field of Vision, drawing attention to how photography is integral to the expansion of how we view the world around us. Bonnie Rubenstein, the artistic director of Contact, described this year’s focus as situating “photography as an expansion of sight.” Photography has the ability render aspects of the human condition that are sometimes invisible to the human eye.
Artist Sebastião Salgado
Some of primary exhibitions include the works of highly gifted photographers such as Erik Kessels, Andrew Wright, and Sebastião Salgado, among many others. Erik Kessels’, 24 Hours in Photography, featured at the Contact Gallery, opening May 9th, explores the ever-changing relationship between photography and society. Andrew Wright’s Penumbra on display at the University Toronto Art Center (UTAC) beginning May 3rd, reflects his “interest in what makes a photograph and what makes a photographic experience.” Sebastião Salgado’s excellence in photojournalism will be displayed in his exhibition entitled Genesis, opening at the Royal Ontario Museum on May 4th.
The opening of Contact took place on May 1st at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA). The MOCCA has been the host of the launch of the festival for the last seven years, and the museum is the most visited exhibition space during the festival. This year, the museum is exhibiting works from the Archive of Modern Conflict entitled Collected Shadows, as well as hosting an installation The Viewing of Six New Works by Michael Snow, a Canadian and internationally renowned artist.
The Viewing of Six New Works by Michael Snow
The launch drew a mass of visitors to the MOCCA of both photographers and admirers of photography. The large gallery spaces as well as the courtyard were filled throughout the entirety of the evening.
The Collected Shadows exhibition occupied the central gallery space where photographs were ordered in a chaotic arrangement clustered together in groups. This exhibition provided viewers with a great multitude of works ranging in subject matter and photographic technique and that inspired them to discuss their ideas about the images.
A show such as this deserves a second visit for viewers to contemplate upon the diverse range in a more private atmosphere.
Text and photo: Alice Tallman