In four shipping containers on the shores of Lake Ontario in downtown Toronto is an exhibition devoted to Caribbean photography. The work of 18 artists is featured, exploring the themes of the portrait, staged and documentary photography. It’s a wonderful opportunity to discover photography from seven different countries. The exhibition has already been turned into the book Pictures From Paradise.
The concept of identity is essential to the history of the Caribbean, and the work of these photographers addresses their reality, one that is often far from the pictures of paradise devised by the tourist board.
To name but a few, the photojournalist Alex Smailes, based in Trinidad and Tobago, followed traveling DJs who rent out their vehicles, which have been turned into sound systems, to be used at outdoor parties.Marvin Bartley experiments with visual art photography, staging pictures reminiscent of historical paintings which allude to the traces of the colonial past. Finally, the Bermuda artist James Cooper offers a more introspective and timeless vision through underwater photographs.
Photographers exhibited : Ewan Atkinson (Barbados), Marvin Bartley (Jamaïca), Terry Boddie (Saint Kitts-et-Nevis), Holly Bynoe (Saint Vincent & Grenadines), James Cooper (Bermudes), Renee Cox (Jamaïque), Gerard Gaskin (Trinidad & Tobago), Abigail Hadeed (Trinidad & Tobago), Gerard Hanson (Jamaïca), Nadia Huggins (Sainte Lucie), Marlon James (Jamaïca), Roshini Kempadoo (Guyane), O’Neil Lawrence (Jamaïque), Ebony G. Patterson (Jamaïque), Radcliffe Roye (Jamaïca), Alex Smailes (Trinidad & Tobago), Stacey Tyrell (Canada,), Rodell Warner (Trinidad & Tobago).
BOOK
Pictures From Paradise
Ed. Robert and Christopher Publishers
EXHIBITION
Pictures from Paradise – A Survey of Contemporary Caribbean Photography
Mai 1st – 25th, 2014
231 Queens Quay West
Toronto
Canada
