The CONTACT Photography Festival runs from May 1 to May 31. We’ll be profiling selected artists and shows throughout the month.

Bruce Gilden, New York City.

Street View
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (952 Queen Street West)
Runs to June 3; Tuesday to Sunday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Bruce Gilden, one of seven photographers whose work is currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art as part of the CONTACT Photography Festival, defined street photography this way: “If you can smell the street by looking at a photograph then it’s street photography.”

With that in mind, this exhibition reeks to high heaven.

The festival’s 2012 theme is an exploration of “the social and political issues that shape our experience of publicness.” At MOCCA, from Bill Sullivan’s installation, More Turns, to quirky images in Nine Eyes of Google Street View, everyday life is elevated—or debased, depending on your view—to the status of street theatre.

Spanning six decades, the exhibition brings together some of the greats in the field, among them originators of the genre—and most prominently, Henri Cartier-Bresson. But not just him. As early as the 1930s, Brooklyn-born photographer Helen Levitt was traipsing through East Harlem neighbourhoods, a trusty Leica at the ready, collecting black and white images of children at play. Her prints remain sublime and timeless.

Arthur Fellig, known to the world as Weegee, inhabited a much darker place. Perched in a rented room across the street from a busy New York City police detachment, he spent hours listening in on police communications with a scanner. If a call piqued his interest, he’d race to the crime scene, arriving before authorities could cordon off the area. Besides photos of crime victims and car wrecks, Weegee specialized in photographing the gawkers and curious onlookers who inevitably gather when police tape appears.

Weegee, Mrs Henietta Torres and her Daughter Alda Watch as Another Daughter and her Son Die in a Fire, New York City.

There is an invasive quality inherent in street photography—skilled practitioners must rely on a certain degree of subterfuge. Bruce Gilden is so swift in his execution, subjects often remain unaware he has photographed them at all.

From the deceptively simple to the downright grotesque, we see versions of ourselves in these images. These streets are our streets, peopled with strangers we recognize. Yet street photography has an uncanny ability to transcend daily experience. Take Weegee’s 1939 print, Mrs Henrietta Torres and her Daughter Ada watch as Another Daughter and her Son Die in a Fire. Captured on a large 4×5 Speed Graphic camera, the image reveals a mother’s anguish at a moment of unimaginable pain. Cloaked in black, mouth agape, her grief harkens back to Renaissance depictions of Mary witnessing her son’s crucifixion.

Street View transports viewers back to a black and white world of photography where the scent of the street was just as fragrant and repugnant as it is today.

Adi Nes, "Untitled" (1995)

CONTACT, the world’s largest celebration of photography, is upon us once again. Exhibits will be showing in galleries and on city streets throughout the month of May, this year centring on the theme of “Public.” As described by artistic director Bonnie Rubenstein, the goal is to “challenge the distinctions between our private lives and the public sphere.”

To help you navigate the dozens of installations, two of Torontoist‘s photographers have put together a list of can’t-miss shows.

The Dark Room: A Group Show Celebrating Alternative Process and Analogue Photography

ARTIST: group exhibition
WHERE: Centre for Culture, Arts, Media & Education (918 Bathurst Street)
WHEN: April 20–May 10; Wednesday to Saturday, 1–4 p.m.

In a world where Instagram gets purchased by Facebook for a billion dollars, it’s exciting to see a group show exploring various alternative/historical analogue photography and printing methods. (Corbin Smith)

Photographie

"100 rue Blainville Ouest" (Gwenaël Bélanger, 2009)

ARTIST: group exhibition
WHERE: Arsenal Toronto (45 Ernest Avenue)
WHEN: April 20–June 9; Friday 12–7 p.m. and Saturday 12–5 p.m.

Though the academic jargon in their write-up may seem off-putting, the photos are pretty amazing. (Corbin Smith)

Toronto Transformed

"Strombo," incorporating part of City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Sub-series 3, Item 1234 (2011)

ARTIST: Harry Enchin
WHERE: Akasha Art Projects (511 Church Street)
WHEN: April 26–May 26; Tuesday to Friday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

A wonderful photo-mashup of contemporary and historical Toronto. (Corbin Smith)

Glass Ceiling

"American Girl Doll" (2010)

ARTIST: Jill Greenberg
WHERE: O’Born Contemporary (131 Ossington Avenue)
WHEN: April 28–June 2; Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Glass Ceiling is a rather smart exploration of postmodern feminism through conceptual photography. Greenberg’s metaphorical portraits of women show her subjects “simultaneously living up to and being undermined by society’s standards of femininity.” (Corbin Smith)

Sleeping Soldiers

"Kelso" (2007–2008)

ARTIST: Tim Hetherington
WHERE: Billboards on Lansdowne Avenue at Dundas and College Streets
WHEN: April 30–June 30

The last conceptual war photography series Hetherington completed before his untimely death in April 2011, while photographing in Libya. The photos are being shown as part of a national art-on-billboards project. (Corbin Smith)

At Home

"Mourning" (2012)

ARTIST: Rehab Nazzal
WHERE: I.M.A. Gallery (80 Spadina Avenue)
WHEN: May 2–26; Wednesday to Saturday, 12–5 p.m.

Nazzal approaches the recent history of the Palestinian struggle for autonomy with a high degree of imagination and innovation. Her exhibition is more than simply images, it’s a collection of image, video, and sound—all which speak to each other in various ways. (Corbin Smith)

Album

"Family photo albums" (2012)

ARTIST: Max Dean
WHERE: Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West) and locations across Toronto
WHEN: May 5–September 9

An unusual way to display work: both installed in the AGO and via roving interactive events across the city. Throughout the month, the artist will appear in the Foto Bug (a “specially configured” 1966 Volkswagen Beetle) to showcase and hand out one of 500 photo albums to unsuspecting passersby. (Dean Bradley)

Adi Nes

Adi Nes, "Untitled" (1995)

ARTIST: Adi Nes
WHERE: Olga Korper Gallery (17 Morrow Avenue)
WHEN: May 3–June 2; Tuesday to Saturday, 12–5 p.m.

The first Canadian exhibition of this internationally renown photographer’s work. Nes has a clear vision of the message he wants to convey—no easy feat given his subject is conflict in Israel. (Dean Bradley)

Gender and Exposure in Contemporary Iranian Photography

Still from "Dowry for Mahrou" (Samira Eskandarfar, 2006)

ARTISTS: Samira Eskandarfar, Amirali Ghasemi, Abbas Kowsari, Zeinab Salarvand, Arman Stepanian, Sadegh Tirafkan
WHERE: Gallery 44 (401 Richmond Street West)
WHEN: May 4–June 9; Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.

A chance to learn about a culture that is often poorly captured by the media, this exhibition provides a look into what day-to-day life is like in Iran. (Dean Bradley)

Between Fantasy and Reality: Contemporary Photography from Cambodia

"First Highrise" (Vandy Rattana, 2008)

ARTIST: Chan Moniroth, Vandy Rattana, Khvay Samnang, Lim Sokchanlina
WHERE: Art Square Gallery (334 Dundas Street West)
WHEN: May 8–June 4, 9–11 p.m. daily

A rare opportunity to view works from Cambodia. (Dean Bradley)

CONTACT Bike Tour

ARTIST: various
WHERE: Start at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (952 Queen Street West)
WHEN: May 20, beginning at 1 p.m.

CONTACT can be overwhelming. This is a great way for first time visitors to experience the festival: an organized bike tour through the city to view all of the public installations. (Dean Bradley)

iPhoneography

"Cakes" (2011)

ARTIST: Jennifer Reedie
WHERE: Wychwood Barns Community Gallery (76 Wychwood Avenue)
WHEN: May 22–31; Tuesday to Friday, 12–5 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday, 8:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.

Who would have thought that a photo exhibition could be shot, well, on an camera phone? It will be interesting where this convergence of technology takes CONTACT in the upcoming years. (Dean Bradley)

It’s time to talk about Toronto’s relationship with graffiti. Like in this FLIP HOP video from Che Kothari on Vimeo.

Today in Toronto: a closing party for the CONTACT Photography Festival, an opening party for the Worldwide Short Film Festival, and a City Hall community summit to discuss the hot topic of graffiti.

PARTY: For the past couple of weeks Toronto has been a haven for shutterbugs and photography fans alike at the CONTACT Festival, sponsored by a certain bank which has been slapping its name on everything. This year’s McLuhan-centric fest gave us plenty of amazing exhibits to ogle, but like all good things, it must come to an end. Fortunately, like the best things, it shall do so with a big wrap party. Festival staff, artists, and guests will all congregate to close CONTACT on a high note, and also to hear the announcement of the BMW Exhibition Prize recipient. Spoke Club (600 King Street West), 6 p.m., FREE.
FILM: Good things come in small packages—as do funny things, scary things, sweet things, heartbreaking things, and so forth—at the Worldwide Short Film Festival. The week of bite-sized big-screen stories kicks off tonight with a showcase of award-winning short films from around the world, as well as a gala reception. If there’s anything half as good as their Charlie Bit My Finger tributes, then it’s bound to be an entertaining evening. Check out our humble recommendations for the rest of the fest here. Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor Street West), 7 p.m., $20.
SUMMIT: Graffiti has been a bit of a hot-button topic at City Hall since our illustrious and oft-illustrated mayor declared war on tags and murals citywide. The graffiti community was quick to return fire, putting both sides at a bit of an impasse. The City of Toronto—led by Councillor Cesar Palacio (Ward 17, Davenport)—has decided to put down the pressure washer and open lines of communication by holding a community summit on the subject. Speakers will include artists, curators, business owners, and Rob Ford’s special adviser on the arts, Jeff Melanson, as they explore both sides of the controversial issue. The event will also be available for live streaming. Drake Hotel (1150 Queen Street West), 7 p.m., FREE.

Aaron Vincent Elkaim, Train, 2011

Boreal Collective
Bau-Xi Photo (324 Dundas Street West)
Running until: May 25 (extended from May 13)
Hours: Monday to Saturday 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Featuring work by a group of up-and-coming photojournalists who “are committed to the documentation of injustice and inequities that exist environmentally, socially, culturally and politically,” this show focuses on several moments of transformation across Canada. The Boreal Collective includes: Rafal Gerszak, Brett Gundlock (whose G20 portraits we wrote about a while ago), Jonathan Taggart, Aaron Vincent Elkaim, and Ian Willms.

Jon Guido Bertelli, Lost in the Past, 1997

Jon Guido Bertelli, Zapatistas, Heroes from the Last Century
Bending Spoons Gallery at Vesuvio (3010 Dundas Street West)
Running until: May 30
Hours: Monday to Saturday 12–11 p.m.; Sunday 3–10 p.m.
In which the artist searches for “the last surviving Zapatista veterans from the Mexican Revolution of 1910–20.”

Carlos Cazalis, Akira Iwamoto, 73 from Osaka on welfare. Immediate family dead, 2009

Carlos Cazalis, Urban Shadows
Pikto (55 Mill Street, Building 59-103; Distillery District)
Running until: May 31
Hours: Monday to Sunday 9 a.m.–7 p.m.
Cazalis travelled to Osaka, Tehran, Mexico City, São Paulo, and Dhaka for a study of megacities and their damaging effects; he looks at both the macro- and microscopic effects of high-density urbanism in each.

Pieter Hugo, 24. Aissah Salifu, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2010

Pieter Hugo, Permanent Error
Billboards (posted at the intersection of Spadina Avenue and Front Street)
Running until: June 4
Hours: open
A look at a slum in Ghana, known as Sodom and Gomorrah, that is also a dumping ground for electronic refuse, by a South African photographer.

Osheen Harruthoonyan, The Road, 2011

Osheen Harruthoonyan, Black Garden
Lonsdale Gallery (410 Spadina Road)
Running until: June 4
Hours: Thursday to Sunday 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
An exploration of the relationship between land and culture, in Harruthoonyan’s works “optical and printing techniques merge foreground and background, to create otherworldly spaces.”

Robert Bourdeau, Paris, France, 2001

Robert Bourdeau, The Station Point
Stephen Bulger Gallery (1026 Queen Street West)
Running until: June 11
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Shot in Europe and North America in large format, Bourdeau’s photographs look at landscapes and buildings that are embedded in natural settings, sometimes to the point of having been overgrown by nature, a reflection of his interest in “how certain structures lose their identity and take on other feelings and ambiguities, and at other times become guardians or sentinels of physical and emotional space.”

Chris Gergley, Tipped Car, 2003

Chris Gergley, Field Work
Monte Clark Gallery (55 Mill Street, Building 2; Distillery District)
Running until: June 12
Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sunday 12–5:30 p.m.
Produced over the past 12 years, Gergley’s exhibit of large-scale images consider human interventions in the landscape, as a way of “investigat[ing] the notion of landscape and the relationship between the figure and pictorial ground.”

Abel Boulineau, Aix-les-Bains: the Hautecombe boat, Grand Port, around 1910

Abel Boulineau, “Where I was born…”
Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West)
Running until: August 21
Hours: Wednesday 10 a.m.–8:30 p.m.; Thursday to Sunday 10a.m.–5:30pm
Boulineau (1839–1934) spent summers travelling through, and photographing, the French countryside. The gelatin silver printing-out-paper prints have been in the AGO’s collection for some time, but they were only recently identified as Boulineau’s—he was previously known as a painter rather than a photographer.

All month long, in place of the advertisements usually lining the length of streetcar #4114, Jordan Bower is asking the question “What does it mean to be a human being?”
It’s a question he was seeking out himself as he snapshot his way through through three separate trips to India and Nepal between 2007 and 2009. His answer is found in his first ever exhibit as a self-titled photographer, on display this month as part of the CONTACT Photography Festival.

This year’s CONTACT’s theme of “Pervasive Influence” asks how the photograph constructs and shapes our reality, and in the case of this exhibition, the Western relationship with the rest of the world—specifically, the developing world.
“The images we see make us feel guilty. We’re always told we need to help, that the world out there is scary for the poor, and that we’re lucky to be able to live without those problems. Some of that’s true, but there’s also a lot of humanity,” Bower said, with an overwhelming enthusiasm that is just too endearing to be fake.
There’s no guilt to be found on board #4114, but onlookers also aren’t made to commend the subjects’ ability to find joy amid their poverty. The people in Bower’s photos, from the young to the ancient, the spiritual to the mundane, are not found in extremes. Two men look annoyed as they’re caught mid-smoke in a slum, another man displays his thirteen fingers to the camera with a grin, a child drapes herself over her mother’s knees. None are exactly in the throes of emotion, either positive or negative, but that doesn’t make them any less moving. The power of the photos lies in that they are simply…being. They are living their lives as they know them.

“We get caught up in the ‘bestness’ of our experience, because they’re poorer, we think they’re worse off. But the people in India would look at me like I was the one who was screwed up, who was different. Life is just life,” he said.
The story of the business-school-grad-turned-nomad reaching his epiphany overseas is one we’ve heard before. His message sounds a little familiar. And the images he captured, well, we’ve probably seen them before, too, in one way or another. But in the context of a photo festival dedicated to Marshall McLuhan,”the medium is the message.” And this medium is off the beaten tracks. A self-proclaimed idealist, Bower just wanted to show what he learned to as many people in his hometown of Toronto as possible, and he thought there’s no venue more accessible to the public at large than the red rocket itself.
Using a streetcar as an art space is a new thing for the CONTACT festival, and there are a few reasons for that. Backlighting issues have left some images in the dark *, the surfer stance is not the most comfortable when taking in the artwork, and changing schedules and no GPS puts finding the streetcar almost entirely in the hands of fate. Bower can only tweet the car’s whereabouts for interested CONTACT-ers. In a way, a streetcar is the total opposite of the traditional gallery—it’s only available to those who don’t actively seek it out. Which is just the audience Bower is seeking, if only they would notice.
“About 85-90% of riders don’t look up. It’s a little hopeless. I know I won’t reach 99.9% of people, it sucks. But I’m getting used to it.”

Jordan Bower.

Such words are the closest Bower ever gets to defeatism during our conversation over tea in the Distillery District. Facing an identity crisis during his travels, he adopted the title of “lovewallah”—the purveyor of love to his community. It was in this spirit that he decided to fund the exhibit out of his own pocket, what he now estimates to be about three thousand dollars. Nor is he expecting to make any money or fame out of it—his name can’t even be found anywhere on the streetcar. He says his only wish is for Torontonians to clear the Big Smoke from around our heads and look at the world in a new, open way.
With enthusiastic waves and a big “Hello!” to passersby, they usually answer with an uncomfortable “Urummff, hellooo…?” This lovewallah’s got some work to do. But the odd impromptu art discussion in the back of #4114, or a woman who told him his photos brightened her day, make it all worth it for Bower.
As for what it means to be a human being—it’s a loaded question for someone exhausted, on their way home from a long day at work. But if commuters can’t find the answer right away, that’s fine with Bower. Just as long as they start thinking in a global sense. Especially, he says, as Canadians become known internationally for our ecological damage rather than our “niceness.”
It just starts with a change from the routine. Maybe a look up from the book, or taking the ear buds out. Or go back to that first panel—the one calling out.
“I wanted to introduce myself. I wanted to ask you how you were feeling. I thought maybe we could get to know each other. And I thought…can you hear me? Hello?”
Photos by Josh Newman.
<a name="asterisk"* The exhibit was originally placed on streetcar #4025, but the TTC changed cars after persistent lighting issues. Jordan Bower takes back all the bad things he ever said about the TTC and their employees.

Indeed the images are, at face value, all about candid people—portraits capturing awkwardly public embraces, revealing gestures, and simple routines—but the nature of this project has made the images more about the places of people. The site itself carries as much significance as the anonymous people portrayed.
In seeing the image, the spectator must be at the site of the creation, producing an unusual convergence between the photographer and the viewer. The only thing that separates the photographer and the audience is time. Bringing together all other dimensions except this one makes you suddenly aware of the drastic yet minute changes caused only by the passage of time. The lighting has changed, the people are gone, and that moment has most certainly passed. Yet here you are, squinting into a little viewer in an attempt see something that someone else experienced right where you are now. The sharing of these rather banal but highly specific locations captures an intimacy unique to those who share a city.

There is also an intimacy in the physical act of viewing these artworks, created by the medium. These small frames reveal their contents only when you hold them up to your eye. This gesture must be committed before the image is accessible. And once it is, you are the only person who can see it. The contrast of this experience against the more passive and communal practice of traditional art viewing is an essential part of the work. Torontoist asked the artist what drew him to this medium.
“I had done some previous installations with very small prints, two by two inches, and I usually have little packets of them that I drop around cities. People seemed to really enjoy the small format beyond its simple novelty, possibly because it changes the viewing experience so significantly. I don’t remember what exactly made me think to use the viewers, but it’s a logical progression in minimizing the scale and personalizing the way a photo is viewed.”
Paired with that intimacy is a misplaced wistfulness for which the medium is also responsible. We typically associate these little plastic key-chain viewers with events in which we participated, capturing our friends and family. They can’t help but fabricate a strange nostalgia, in this case for a time not long past and for a person that you will never know.

There is also an odd sensation in leaving the viewer to hang there innocently as you walk away, awaiting the next curious eye. The tiny but intense experience is left dangling and at the mercy of the masses. Krawesky spoke about his observations on the public reaction.
“I’ve only had a few minutes at each site as I was installing, and a few minutes as I revisit them to repair and replace them. I haven’t seen anyone pick them up and look on their own; only after encouragement from me have people looked when I was there. The reaction has been good, surprised, and appreciative. Many of them have already been taken, or destroyed. My favourite engagement so far is at Queen and Dufferin, where I came back to find that the viewer had been snapped off, possibly left on the ground, and then someone else taped it back to the cable with electrical tape.”
Such a display of unprompted empathy for the work is not too hard to understand. The treatment of the subjects in the photos, the site-specific interaction, and the humility of the installation all speak to the artist’s passion and compassion for this city, developed over the years of walking its streets, taking in the lives of its inhabitants.
Presented by Patrick Mikhail Gallery, instills runs until Friday, May 15.
Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.