Like many cities around the world, Montreal hosts a portfolio review for contemporary photography. Photoforum, at Les Territoires, features forty-one emerging artists whose work was reviewed by thirty-one professionals during the last weekend of April. Each artist met with seven professionals to discuss their work. These pieces are now on display until May 5. Instead of lining up the photographs on the wall in the usual way, Les Territoires is exhibiting them in the manner of a nineteenth century French academy, asymetrically, sometimes one on top of another. This exhibition introduces new artists to Montreal’s art scene and presents many forms of photographic practices.

Two of the works that caught my eye were Protector by Kate Yüksel and Sans Titre, de la série Conserver L’immobile, by Catherine Aboumrad, both excerpted from photographic series. Protector is a forest scene of two young boys emerging from the greenery. The series, Two Boys, documents their growing relationship. The title of this work, Protector, raises questions about who (or what) is protecting whom. Abroumrad’s series Conserver L’immobile (Capturing Stillness), portrays the landscape of the Canadian North, playing with how light infiltrates deserted spaces. In Sans Titre she has photographed the top of a hill on a cloudy day, arousing uncertainty of what lies beyond, invoking the mystery and strangeness of the northern wilderness.

These two works are examples of the multiple photographic practices in the exhibition. Viewers can enjoy still lifes, portraits, installations, works that demonstrate the technical abilities of photography, those that reflect other media like drawing or painting. The show also introduces many artists. Whose work made you want to see more? Who did you look up when you went home and whose name are you going to keep an eye out for in upcoming shows in Montreal?

Les Territoires, space 527
Multiple Artists
Photoforum
April 26 – May 5 2012
www.lesterritoires.org