Montreal-born, Nicolas Ruel was driven to photography by a deep-seated passion. “I was undeniably inhabited by it, and it compelled me to move forward, to discover.” Over seven + years he has worked on a major project called 8 secondes. The work began in 2007 and saw its completion in 2015. In 2009 Ruel exhibited Project 8 secondes at the Galerie Zone Orange in Montreal, the Thompson Landry Gallery in Toronto, and the Galerie Seine 51 in Paris. Ruel is fascinated with the fact that photography is both artistic and very technical. The project 8 secondes presented challenges in both areas. He wanted to “revisit the image of the world’s greatest cities.” His first city was Paris, followed by London. At first he planned on documenting 16 cities, but then as the project became bigger and bigger, it grew to 50 cities. Now, nearing the end of the project, he has decided to add 12 more. Ruel had been experimenting with long exposures prior to 8 secondes. He asserts in his artist statement, “This long exposure makes it possible to assemble key moments in a single take, analogous to the process of condensation in dreams. Thus, in this dolly shot, I translate the actions and spectacle of the city and its residents as I follow their unceasing movement.” As for the locations he seeks out, he says, “I am fascinated by transitory and transitional sites — places that in their nature and function incarnate motion and metamorphosis, such as ports, terminals, docks, highways, construction sites, churches, and stadiums.” Although everything in the eight-second exposure is in the scene, the resulting image is not a visual document but rather an artistic interpretation. It is a unique point of view and Ruel tries to imbue it with meaning and vision. The images have a sensuous quality and seem like dreams, moving pictures crystallized and condensed into one scene. Ruel calls these micro-métrages or micro movies. The ebb and flow of time is felt in each image. Ruel states, “Motion is at the heart of most of the images I create. The subject is constantly in motion. I’m in motion. The camera and the subject are in motion. The locations are iconic and revive images and feelings from the past. We have experience with what the world would look like if we could freeze 1/125 of a second. Ruel presents his vision of what the world would look like if we could freeze eight seconds. Although frozen in one frame, the motion and passing of time is clearly felt. On the technical side Ruel has a strong interest in modern industrial material. He has experimented with the metal printing process and took the bold move to print the 8 secondes project on large-format stainless steel plates. He refers to this as a flashback to the daguerreotype process where the image was printed on a polished copper plate. The stainless steel gives the image a reflective quality and brings to mind the initial name given to daguerreotypes: “the mirror with a memory.” Ruel considers himself very fortunate to be able to travel around the world and use the medium of photography to be creative. He states, “Every day I am amazed behind the magic that is photography. We live in a special time — one of the best times I could be born is right now.“ His advice is to find a way to express your dreams in a very unique way and go for it. He says, “Shoot and shoot. You never know how far you can go. Be open to different things — even things that are not connected to your kind of photography. Look for collaborations with artists in other fields, such as painters, sculptors, architects.” Ruel has been applying his own advice in the past few years, the most notable example being his collaboration with the French fashion house Maison Jean-Paul Gaultier. For Ruel, the most important part of this collaboration was “sharing a dream or a vision.” This is something we can apply to any kind of photography and, by doing so, we will elevate our art to another level. We featured Nicolas Ruel in our Winter 2013: Travel Photography - Issue #39 - Get it in PRINT HERE. See more of Nicolas' work : www.nicolasruel.com #NicolasRuel #travelphotography #Montreal #photoart #longexposure #fineartphotography #experimentation #canadianphotography #motionphotography

Scott Conarroe believes that the environment “offers insights into the true values and psychology of a culture.” He acknowledges that each one of us has an impact and inherent responsibility for both our own personal surroundings as well as the environment at large. However, his photographic mission in his By Sea project is not about judgment or making a political statement regarding our infringement on the environment. “I didn’t want By Sea to be an inventory of climate change vignettes or [a] map of the coastline,” Conarroe states in an email interview from Limburg, Belgium, where he worked on a project about how comparable regions deal with their industrial heritages. Instead, his approach to the project is analogous to an observational essay. “The coastline was a really useful device for discussing the way we inhabit North America,” he states. “Along a single elevation, it spans the breadth of this civilization from circumpolar to subtropical regions. Through cities and sprawl and unadulterated landscape, sea level marks a visible edge where the land we can live on abuts a vast plane where we can’t. In a sense, the coastline illustrates that our dominion has limits.” With his By Sea project, Conarroe wanted to achieve a parallel imagery of timelessness and in-the-moment engagement. To evoke this ambiance, he shot his images by using long exposures, just before dawn and just after dusk. “In long exposures, when the light changes colour by the second, the light blends and softens and a degree of uncertainty is introduced into the process. I close the shutter when things move around in my frame, and when they become still or absent I open it again. In the end, my pictures are shadowless, slightly off-colour views that I think of as midway between an impressionist painting and a schematic diagram,”. By Sea is a rejoinder to By Rail (2008), Conarroe’s series about railways in Canada and the United States. He says, “On one hand, the rail system describes the vastness of this (Anglo- America) geo-cultural bloc simply; on the other, it illustrates both our ambitious course of development and the fear that our best days might be past. By Sea looks at the coastline perimeter of the same civilization.” Conarroe moves from recording the history of the postindustrial environment in By Rail, to a prescient geographical documentation of periphery waterscapes randomly selected throughout North America. “I like the idea that the North America we know today grew from the moment of first contact when Europeans first stepped onto the shore, and that this new era By Sea alludes to is also slipping up past the tide line. I like thinking this culture’s past and future are bookended by episodes at the water’s edge, just like the physical territory is bound by distinct coastlines,” Conarroe says. Conarroe keeps his choice of equipment simple, using a Wista RF 4 x 5 field camera, a 135mm Nikkor lens, a 127mm Schneider lens, and Kodak 160 NC film. (NC film features finer grain properties for image enlargement.) While Conarroe’s creative path did not begin with a camera, having tried his hand at creative writing and printmaking, his formal photographic studies, which include a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (ECIAD) and an MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), have stood him in good stead. In 2010, Conarroe’s work was featured in Canada’s pavilion at Shanghai’s World Expo; as well, he was named one of the year’s top emerging 30 photographers by Photo District News. His mentors include Jim Bruekelman, teacher at ECIAD; Alvin Committer and Bob Bean, teachers at NSCAD; Geoffrey James, who, according to Conarroe, “treated me like a colleague when I was just some guy with a camera”; John Mannion at Light Work/Community Darkrooms (Syracuse); and Stephen Bulger, who “seems to have limitless reserves of encouragement, integrity, and sound advice.” Conarroe’s advice to aspiring photographers is simple, succinct, and practical: “Do something to propel your practice every day.” See more of Scott Conarroe's work at: www.scottconarroe.com #travelphotography #ScottConarroe #longexposure #photographycanada #climatechangephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #canadianphotographer #analogfilm

The Timescape series comprises film strip-like narratives made between 2001 and 2003, marking a particular measure of time and space. Shot on the fly, during a walk, on a train ride, or from a car window, each strip maps a small journey: some a daily routine, others more unusual and of greater significance. Each Timescape, in its own way, seeks to fix a passage of time and place, while at the same time expressing a sense of dislocation and transition. The photographs in this series were created using a Holga toy camera. I came upon this camera over ten years ago and was fascinated by its modest construction. The camera seemed to harken back to pinhole or other forms of early photography when our tools were simpler. It amazed me that this primitive device made out of plastic, with a plastic lens, could produce images of such beauty. I soon discovered that the Holga had its limitations: lens distortion and light flare among them. However, these qualities seemed to coincide well with something I was seeking to express in my work at the time, something ephemeral and dreamlike. For many years before making the Timescapes I was working with regular and super 8 film, scrolling the film through a hand-cranked editor and examining the still frames within the story, while embracing them as part of a greater narrative. One day while viewing my Holga negatives, which I had left uncut, I discovered that one of my 120 negative strips seemed to unfold like a film. In re-examining the negatives I had shot over previous years, I realized that a number of them emerged in this cinematic way. With this idea in mind, I began to consciously shoot a roll of film with the awareness of forming a narrative, sensitive to how one frame might speak to the next to create a story. Working with multiple images expressed a sense of groundlessness that I wanted to communicate. By holding the camera away from my body and shooting as I moved through the landscape, I strove to evoke the feeling of searching for place and identity. As curator Karen Henry wrote about the Timescapes in the exhibition Landscape and Light, “the accumulation of multiple frames reveals an effort to grasp something impossible to hold onto.” My work is informed by a fascination with the relationship between the still and the moving image: examining how the photographic still is a moment lifted from the flowing stream of time. In exploring this relationship over the years, I have worked simultaneously in photography and video. My work in each has informed the other. My video When the Cricket Sings (2007), shot in Shanghai, depicts a night walk through a shop-crowded street with brightly illuminated interiors. Like the Timescapes, the Cricket video is shot with the camera moving. On this Shanghai street, the video passes steadily along the sidewalk exposing a series of brief vignettes as shoppers buy food, examine electronics, or eat bowls of noodle soup. As the promenade continues, the lit shops are separated by darkness, and the night becomes the black rebate that divides one frame from another in a film or negative strip. In unraveling the Timescapes, it became clear to me that they marked an important passage in my work, linking my love and fascination with the still and the moving image, and foretelling of an ongoing exploration of duration, memory, and narrative. See more of Sara' work at: www.sara-angelucci.ca This article originally appeared in PhotoEd Magazine's Winter Issue 2008. #canadianphotography #SaraAngelucci #Holga #womeninphotography #alternativeprocess #analogfilm #filmexploration #experimentation

Naomi Harris set off on the Trans Canada Highway in the summer of 2011 in a car she bought on eBay. She had a Canada Council for the Arts grant for her project Oh Canada! Her plan was to drive from coast to coast, photographing Canadians — the ordinary and the extraordinary. We asked her how she decided who to approach and how she made her approaches. “Frankly, if you live in Canada, you are a Canadian, right?” she replied. “I simply said I was doing a road trip from coast to coast to make portraits of Canadians and could I kindly photograph them and include them in the project.” Harris explains, “I wanted to try to be as inclusive as possible of people from all walks of life and make sure the project wasn’t just a bunch of white, apple-cheeked people.” She had an ambitious idea: start in Victoria and keep heading east; get to events such as the Spock Days festival in Vulcan, Alberta; photograph the oldest living Canadian (Pearl Lutzko of Ituna, Saskatchewan); and end the trip in St John’s, Newfoundland by Labour Day. “Most of my subjects I just stumbled upon along the way, which to me is the nicest way to meet people,” she says. Harris’s portraits have a gravitas and dignity, presented with respect and a calm clarity. They suggest stories we would like to hear and people we would like to talk to, about the very different ways we are or have become Canadians. Through her images and between her words, you get a sense that Harris cherishes the stories she’s been told. She met Ruth Kells, now 92, at a veterans’ event in Halifax, and now counts her as a dear friend. When Ruth was 18 in the early 1940s, she signed up to the RCAF as a wireless operator. For a woman to go to the war in Europe, she’d have to be 21, so she worked from Canada and travelled after the war, a bold ambition for a woman at that time. “She even had a motorbike!” says Harris. “Part of my experience as a photographer is that you get to spend a brief moment in time with people and capture it in a photograph, but then move on to the next adventure,” Harris shares. Another road-side acquaintance that has stuck with her – and still travels with her now – was the result of choosing a back road in Saskatchewan. “I looked on a map and saw that a hamlet called Kandahar wasn’t too far away. Since I would never go to Kandahar, Afghanistan, why not go to Kandahar, Canada? There were two different routes I could take, one on a highway that took me a little bit out of the way or one that was more direct, but on a dirt road that went through the Poor Man First Nation Reserve. If you know Saskatchewan roads at all, you know that they are the worst in the nation; paved or unpaved, your shocks are going to take a beating. I decided to take the unpaved but more direct route.” Halfway along that road, driving alone in the baking sun, Harris saw a hitchhiker. She’d never picked up a hitchhiker before. She says, “Maybe it was the heat and the fact that the reservation was 15 kilometres away, but something urged me to give this man a lift. I think he was surprised too when the car backed up, the window rolled down, and this lone woman offered him a lift. He quietly got into the car. We made small talk and, when we got to the turn off, I asked if I could come and photograph his family, to which he replied, ‘Sure.’ I had never been on a reservation before; I don’t know too many people from Toronto who have been. But it was honestly sadder than anything I expected: bleak pre-fab homes with no landscaping, dirt roads, broken down cars in yards among other garbage, stray dogs roaming the streets and, to top it off, a tornado had torn through the community the summer before. While I waited for his parents to return home so I could photograph the family, I began talking with the hitchhiker’s younger sisters. Out of nowhere this horrible, tick-ridden, dreadlocked, muddy, wretched creature waddled up to us. Instinctively they kicked it away, to which I was like ‘Whoa! What are you doing?’ They simply replied it was a ‘Rez’ dog, so it didn’t matter. I wanted to prove to them that under that horrible coat was a sweet creature so I went to my car to get some scissors and began giving the dog a haircut. She immediately rolled over in submission and let me cut off all of the matted hair. I asked the girls to get a bucket of warm, soapy water so we could give her a bath. By the time we were done, they were all excited by how sweet this dog was. Underneath that mess was a purebred Shih Tzu. She had a cherry eye that required surgery and scabs from the ticks but seemed okay otherwise.” Harris asked if she could take the dog with her, as no one owned it. “As I drove away, I felt guilty that I was taking a dog away with me instead of being able to do something for the family I just left.” Her new four-legged friend Maggie turned out to be anaemic and heavily pregnant. Harris consulted a vet and, through a friend she met on Tumblr, found “an incredible woman who said she’d keep Maggie, help deliver the puppies, find homes for all of them, and then deliver Maggie to me when I was done the trip. Just before I pulled out of Winnipeg, Maggie gave birth to six puppies … and true to the woman’s word, all the puppies found good homes.” Two months later after the end of the roadtrip, Maggie was flown to Toronto. Harris picked her up from the airport. “I set the carrier down in the airport parking lot, opened the hatch, and Maggie flew out! Confused from the ordeal of the trip, she looked around and suddenly there was a distinct look of recognition in her eyes, like ‘It’s you, the one who rescued me!’ She jumped up and down and licked me excitedly.” A chance meeting in a remote town and a connection online: these networks of people and fate reveal the ways we intersect, support, connect, and contact strangers, friends, and family. This is a part of what Oh Canada! shares. Has she finished? Did Harris find Canada in her coast-to-coast adventures? “I would say it isn’t a complete project. I’d like to return to the road again sometime in the future and fill the gaps in and go to places I didn’t get a chance to visit the first time round.” We asked what advice she would give to new and emerging photographers. What has she learned, and what would she pass on? “How we choose to photograph people [has] repercussions. We also have a responsibility to our subjects to share their stories and likeness in a way they would want to be portrayed. I tend to like to photograph ‘real’ people and, in a way, that isn’t always the most flattering. But I think pictures can have elements of peculiarity, awkwardness, and absurdity to them… it’s your intentions that are important. Are you capturing a bizarre moment in time or are you intentionally trying to mock or ridicule your subject? I think photographers have to ask themselves what their intent is, and what the consequences of their photos will be. I feel like I’m still learning about myself all the time. Like right now I’m trying to figure out how much longer I can sustain this lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong, I love photography and the experiences I’ve had through it, but financially this isn’t sustainable anymore. Now whether that means I’ll get a day job but continue doing photography in the form of personal projects remains to be seen. But this is the best piece of advice I can give to young photographers. That you don’t have to make a living out of being a photographer, because surviving off of photography alone is really, really hard. There is no shame in having a ‘real’ job to make ends meet. In fact, it can be a plus, because it’s easier to be creative when you aren’t in debt or stressed out about how to pay your rent.” naomiharris.com This story and other great Canadian photo stories can be found in our Spring/ Summer 2017 issue, CELEBRATING CANADA. Get it in beautiful print, HERE. *** Maggie is very popular on instagram : @maggiewhereyouat #NaomiHarris #portraiture #portraitphotography #womeninphotography #photographycanada #canadianphotography #canadianphotographer #peoplephotography

PhotoED Magazine receives a LOT of submissions of amazing photography from across Canada. We recently received a group submission that we just couldn't wait to share with our national audience. Brought to us by an amazing pro-active photo educator, Anna Wilson of Richmond Hill High School in Ontario, we felt that this outstanding set of images deserved some special recognition. VICTORIA I am someone who wants to speak out against something that isn’t accepted in everyday society. If you look closely at my image, the lock screen of the phone displays an audio book playing, which is titled “Ethics”. This can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the viewer’s point of view. I want this artwork to inspire others to have their own voice and to not be afraid of sticking up for what they think is right. MARYIAM My image, “Fear of the World”, describes the fear a shy individual has to the outside world. A door pushed to shut out the dangers of the outside world, while balloons represent the spirit of childhood, imagination and creativity, reflecting how much really goes on in a quiet person’s active mind. ERICA I am made up of many different pieces of a complex puzzle. I am removing one piece of this puzzle, as there are some memories that I want to erase. Despite wanting to avoid these negative memories, if I remove the piece, I lose a part of myself. Similar to a puzzle, where when it is missing a piece it is not complete. DARIO The first figure (left standing) represents my desire to pursue a career in photography since it’s something I really enjoy doing and I consider myself decent at. I'm facing backwards because I don’t know what path to take to pursue my dream. The second figure (bottom right), represents my constant will to fly back to Italy because I miss my friends and family there. The third and fourth figures represent how I still feel out of place even though I’ve lived in Canada for more than a year. There’s something that doesn’t feel right even though everybody makes me feel welcome here and befriended me. SOPHIA The main theme of this work is self destruction. There are shadows inside us. Someone may have a nice surface but his or her inside is dark. No one can tell other people may be suffering. JANICE I am constantly overwhelmed by stress due to piles of homework and assignments thrown at me at school. Stress builds to the point where I feel like I am drowning with no escape. There is a crack in the glass which symbolizes my breaking point and my determination to overcome my stress. When I am able to break the glass, I can release all the water that is drowning me. As the water is released, my stress levels will decrease. AMANDA I have two sides, the bright side and dark side. One side stands straight with energy, with colors and brightness around me. The other side is when I am alone with gloomy darkness of negative moods, depression and anxiety. The hand, symbolizes the pressure and annoyances which I am suffering. These pressures are so big that the I am not able to escape when it is trying to catch me. The dark hand does not go to the positive side since no one can see I am suffering. #photomanipulation #emergingartists #studentphotographer

In case you missed our EDMONTON 2019 PHOTO INSPIRATION Pecha Kucha Event AT THE GARNEAU THEATRE - or you wanna see it again - check out Adam Borman's presentation on why he loves working in the studio, and how your only limitation in the studio is your imagination. In case you're not familiar - Pecha Kucha is a format where speakers only have 20 slides X 20 secs/ slide to share their story. It's TOUGH. But really, really fun... #emergingartists #fineartphotography #studentphotographer #studiophotography #AlbertaPhotographer

In case ya missed our TORONTO 2018 PHOTO INSPIRATION Pecha Kucha Event - or wanna see it again - photographer + artist Justin Atkins shares his work, and tells us about his creative experiments, creating alter egos, and entertaining yourself through photography. In case you're not familiar - Pecha Kucha is a format where speakers only have 20 slides X 20 secs/ slide to share their story. It's TOUGH. But really, really fun... PhotoED Magazine awarded Justin our first ever InFocus Photo Emerging Artist Award in Edmonton in 2018! We also featured his work in our Spring/ Summer 2018 issue: Manipulated Images. Get inspired. Get your copy before they are sold out HERE. #emergingartists #fineartphotography

In case you missed our EDMONTON 2019 PHOTO INSPIRATION Pecha Kucha Event AT THE GARNEAU THEATRE - check out portrait photographer Ryan Parker's presentation that will change the way you think about shooting portraits. In case you're not familiar - Pecha Kucha is a format where speakers only have 20 slides X 20 secs/ slide to share their story. It's TOUGH. But really, really worth it. #AlbertaPhotographer #fineartphotography #photohistoryincanada #portraitphotography #studiophotography

In case you missed our EDMONTON 2019 PHOTO INSPIRATION Pecha Kucha Event AT THE GARNEAU THEATRE - check out Pieter De Vos presentation sharing images from his project documenting life in Woodlane Village, a squatter camp in the wealthy suburb of Moreleta Park in Pretoria, South Africa. His book on this work will be released this year to correspond with the 25 year anniversary of the first open elections, and the abolishment of apartheid in South Africa. In case you're not familiar - Pecha Kucha is a format where speakers only have 20 slides X 20 secs/ slide to share their story. It's TOUGH. But really, really worth it. #documentaryphotography #AlbertaPhotographer #blackandwhite

In case ya missed our TORONTO 2018 PHOTO INSPIRATION Pecha Kucha Event - or wanna see it again - photographer + artist Farihah Shah talks about her work and where she's been exploring through her fine art photographic practice. In case you're not familiar - Pecha Kucha is a format where speakers only have 20 slides X 20 secs/ slide to share their story. It's TOUGH. But really, really fun... #womeninphotography #emergingartists #fineartphotography