Imagine the smell of salt, the sound of waves breaking against the hull of the boat hull and the sea foam splashing through the massive rocks. The photographs of Charles F. Ouellet awaken our senses, in silence. In the exhibition Le Naufrage, on display at the Galerie Lacerte in Montreal through April 20th, Ouellet documents the daily lives of fishermen in the estuary of the St. Lawrence River in a narrative and dreamlike way. The union of man and the elements fascinates him: the sea, majestic and restless, challenges man every day, and man tames the sea and seems invincible. An osmosis forms between unpredictable nature and these “men of the sea.” A sailor visiting the exhibition shared with Ouellet the emotions the images stirred in him. Through polaroids, panoramics, view cameras and 35mm, these black-and-white photographs mounted in wooden frames—Ouellet does his own printing—and plunge the viewer into a free and meditative world.
Charles Frédérick Ouellet is based in Quebec and represented by the Galerie Lacerte. He is the cofounder of the KAHEM collective and joined the Studio Hans Lucas in 2015.
EXHIBITION
Le Naufrage
By Charles Frédérick Ouellet
From March 25th to April 20th, 2015
Galerie Lacerte – Art contemporain
6345, boulevard Saint-Laurent
Montréal, Canada
http://www.charlesouellet.ca
http://www.kahemimages.com
http://www.galerielacerte.com
http://www.hanslucas.com/cfouellet/photo
