Through April 13, 2014, The McCord Museum of Montreal, whose mission is to provide support for collections focusing on the history of Canada and Quebec, will be holding a retrospective of the work of Claire Beaugrand-Champagne, featuring nearly 200 photographs, mostly in black-and-white, retracing 40 years of the photographer’s career. She is considered to have been the first female photojournalist in Quebec.
Her humanist and politically committed work documents Quebec of the past and present. After joining the GAP (Groupe d’Action Photographique), one of the first photojournalism collectives, in 1972 she participated in the project Disraeli. Four young photographers decided to set up in the small village of Disraeli and produce a report on Quebec identity in the region. Over the course of two months, they were accepted by local villagers, who allowed the photographers to document their daily lives. Starting with the first publication of the photographs, a few intellectuals condemned their representation of the village. They claimed it did no more than, “show the poverty of Quebec.” The photographers defended themselves by saying that they only wanted to inform viewers about life in the countryside by following its farmers. This controversy led documentary to have a permanent place in Quebec, a genre that had until then been little understood
Although in 1980 she covered the refugee camps in Thailand and Malaysia, for which she was hired as a correspondent by the newspaper La Presse, Beaugrand-Champagne moved away from the media and devoted herself to an approach to photography that would allow her to “meet” her subjects. Upon her return from Asia, she found two Vietnamese families whose lives had been turned upside-down by history. She followed newcomers like them for several years, bearing witness to the difficulties of immigration in Quebec.
Thereafter, she turned her focus to ordinary, daily life, and with the help of a grant from the Conseil des Arts du Canada, she produced a report on the elderly, which resulted in an exhibition that traveled across Canada, La vieillesse c’est dans la tête des autres. Authentic, touching and free of cliché, Beaugrand-Champagne shot her subjects without prejudice. Her portraits are intimate and show a sensitive and knowing eye behind the lens.
The Musée McCord is exhibiting a dozen photo essays that allow viewers to discover or rediscover this discreet artist. Having previously been exhibited in Canada and abroad, her works are now part of international private collections and several Canadian museums.
Claire Beaugrand-Champagne lives and works in Montreal, where she is currently at work on the project Des Gens de Montréal.
EXHIBITION
Émouvante vérité – Photographies de 1970 à 2013
December 5 – April 13, 2014
Curator: Hélène Samson
Musée McCord 690, rue Sherbrooke Ouest Montréal, Qc H3A 1E9 514 398-7100
Canada
[email protected]
Déclic 70
Until January 19, 2014
Curator : Nicolas Mavrikakis
Group exhibition
Galerie d’art Stewart Hall 176, chemin du Bord-du-Lac,
Pointe-Claire, Qc H9S 4J7 514 630-1220
CANADA
