Snapshots

Photo by Dionisio González

CONTACT, Toronto’s photo festival is back in town for the month of May. This year’s feature exhibt “The Constructed Image: Photographic Culture” at MOCCA is made up of 10 artists from around the world who want you to think about your relationships to your urban and natural environments. (Hello?! Did somebody say enviromental pscyhology?) Another common theme found in all these photo series is a welcoming embrace to the digital side of photography. Without spoiling the fun, highlights of the exhibit include:

Dionisio González (see photo above) looks at the favelas in Sao Paulo, Brazil following a mass reurbanization project that failed to include input from the actual people that live there. His subtle, but clever digital alterizations reflect on the architectural creativity and ingenuity of the flavela residents in “urbanizing” their homes.

Kim Joon’s photo series of digitally added tattoos looks at global corporate culture and how its replaced our sense of a national identity.Talk about branding.

For Sam Taylor Wood’s self-portraits, she was tied up in various positions in an open space of her new studio, and then she digitally erased the ropes to make it look like she was levitating. Taylor Wood agrees with Virgina Woolf that women (or anyone, if you ask me) need space to develop their creative and productive self.

I am so pumped about this photorific month.