The Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival has celebrated the work of Canadian and international artists for the past twenty-five years. The submissions shine a light on present-day issues that impact everyone on an individual, a societal and a global level. Some of the issues addressed this year focused on the representation of women's bodies as sites of power that challenge history, intersectional experiences of queer artists, Indigenous perspectives on land, culture, sovereignty and colonialism, and the perception of Black bodies in contemporary and colonial paradigms.

This year, Photographers Without Borders (PWB) asked its members to reimagine the kind of future they want for themselves, others and the world.

The following images speak to a reimagining of movement and how collective forces shape us and our environments. It's a chance to reflect on our perceptions and consider a movement's complex, powerful and delicate nature. Movement is the innate flow of our bodies when we experience varying emotions and complete different tasks. It’s the way we interact with others, the natural world and ourselves. It's both a place of power and of stillness, impacting our ability to move freely from place to place. Whether individual or collective, movements shift our perspective when freedom is not guaranteed; it poses the question, "How do we view global issues and what steps need to be taken to progress as people and as societies?"

Lola Wallace

Born and raised in London’s east end, Lola Wallace discovered her love for photography in college. She lived in Sri Lanka for three years and has worked with Photographers Without Borders (PWB) on two projects. This led her back to portraiture and a desire to faithfully capture the story, personality and character of the people she documents within just a few frozen moments of time.

Lola's image is inspired by the painting "Portrait of Madeleine" by Marie-Guillemine Benoist. In 1800, it was highly unusual to feature a Black woman rendered in a neoclassical pose. This caused much divisiveness amongst critics who saw it exhibited at the Salon Carré, where it became known as "noirceur" or "the black stain."

In the painting, Madeleine has her breast exposed—a tie back to the slave markets of Europe where Black women were subject to bodily inspection to determine "value." This contrasts her dignified pose and the fact that she was painted at all. Lola says, "My self-portrait is a reimagining of the painting to recreate the power of Madeleine, whilst redressing her to return her ownership of dignity."

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Mathieu Cladidier

Mathieu Cladidier is a teacher who has lived in New York City for the past two years. Photography is his way of distancing himself and emerging in the world. He is fascinated by the process and the stories that our everyday lives can bring to us.

It is 10:30 am on a sunny day in New York City with honking, yelling and dancing in the street. After three days, the 2021 presidential race has been called. Joe Biden won the election.

Mathieu shares, "It's not my country; I can't vote. But it's where I live, and I've seen what a devastating policy can do. I'm happy to think of brighter days ahead of us. I just enjoy the moment, not taking photos at first—I want to live it and take it all in. My wandering path brings me to Washington Square Park and a ray of light attracts my gaze. This is it! The moment that sums it all up!"

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Rita Silen

Rita Silen has been a portrait photographer for twenty-five years and an international healthcare relief participant for twenty. She attended the Photographers Without Borders (PWB) workshop in India. Supporting women globally is her passion.

In a small hospital in Hebron, Palestine, a woman awaits a Caesarean section after her all-day labor failed to deliver her baby. She is exhausted, as are those who have been working in the operating suite all-day long and who will minister to her tonight.

In many small community hospitals worldwide, a Caesarean section is the most commonly performed surgical procedure. Women's health services are vital to the well-being of communities, regions and countries. International exchanges to share expertise and best practices are just the beginning of creating accessible, safe health care for all.

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Rasha Al Jundi

Rasha Al Jundi is an aspiring self-taught photographer who has always been fascinated by the power of an image and how it can relay part of a story, influencing and moving hearts and minds. Over the past ten years, her humanitarian work has taken her across the globe; she has witnessed brutality mixed with humanity.

Storytelling through photography enables her to communicate with people around her. She is a Palestinian, born in Jordan, raised in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), educated in Lebanon, with an address that is always changing. Despite Rasha's ever-changing environment, her camera is the constant that will always be there to tell her story amongst others.

This photo was taken in an elderly home in the village of Aldona, north of Goa, India. It is part of a final edit for an ongoing project, titled "In the Name Of..", which aims to show the practices that people from different communities adopt in the name of their religious, cultural or other belief systems.

As part of her documentation of the Catholic minority in Goa, Rasha focused on the community practicing the Christian faith in different parts of Goa, including the village of Aldona. This led her to visit a local elderly home run by nuns, supported by the local village Church. One day, while walking through the facility, Rasha looked through a window and noticed the reflection of this long-term elderly female resident who was standing on the opposite rooftop taking in the morning sun. She was in a moment of personal contemplation—a human experience we all encounter throughout our lives.

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Laura Proctor

Laura Proctor is a self-taught documentary photographer living and working in Toronto (Tkaronto), Canada. Growing up homeschooled in the small village of Hawkestone, Laura spent her youth photographing friends, family, neighbours and small-town events. This led to a passion for documentary photography, which has resulted in multiple photo projects, including a series on an “unschooling” family in small town Ontario and a portrait series of Canadian musicians and their children.

A Juneteenth 2020 protest in downtown Toronto, organized by Not Another Black Life in support of Black Lives Matter.

Laura says, "I looked down at the spiralling chalk writing on the ground with the defiant "Abolish the police" signs lying in the centre. For me, this image represents the turmoil and change that has occurred in 2020. It made me reflect on the fact that before 2020, I had never heard such widespread talk about abolishing the police. I had never imagined or been asked to imagine a world without a police force. This is now a world that many of us are envisioning. It's a total reimagining of everything we've grown up with and been influenced to think is possible.

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Ada Trillo

Ada Trillo is a Philadelphia-based photographer, native to the Juarez-El Paso binational metroplex. In her work, she focuses on borders of inclusion and exclusion as they are experienced through people in forced prostitution, climate and violence-related international migration, and long-standing borders of race and class. Through the elements of documentary and fine art photography, Ada lays bare our common humanity and dignity to bring attention to the impact borders have on people who have been exploited.