SCOTIABANK CONTACT PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL EXHIBIT: REIMAGINE
For the 2021 Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, we asked our members to “reimagine”—to reimagine the past, present and future, and to imagine new destinations and horizons. Reimagine a new future for the world. For each other.
As storytellers, we are not simply passive actors; we have a hand in shaping the future. Where are we going? How do we get there?
Through this, we hope that these images can be guiding lights towards a stronger future, making space for diverse voices to work towards creating a new vision for how the world could be.
Exhibit live May - July 2021
Meet FEATURED STORYTELLERS
Ada Trillo
“Migrants from Honduras cross the Suchiate River, as they pass through Guatemala to Mexico. Two days prior, the Mexican Government tear-gassed a group of 500 migrants who arrived at the Border and attempted to wade across the river into Mexico. Despite the event, the caravan persisted. Out of desperation, they tried crossing the river again. This time they succeeded and pushed forward several miles into Mexico.”
Elke Scholiers
Through more than forty years of Cold War, the highly militarized islands of Kinmen, three miles off the coast of China, were the front line and sporadic battlefield between the Chinese Communists who controlled mainland China, and their civil war rivals, the Nationalists who controlled Taiwan and Kinmen and their American allies. As the United States and China enter a new Cold War today, with the Taiwan Strait as primary flashpoint, the specter of conflict is again looming over Kinmen. But on the scarred islands themselves, the conflict doesn’t play out only in terms of geopolitics, but in more intimate ways. Three generations are grappling with questions of personal loyalties, of identity, of what it means to be Kinmense, Taiwanese, Chinese, or all three at once. By re-imagining their past, generations of Kinmense are hoping to understand what it means to be Kinmenese. By facilitating connections and working with the county councilor, Kinmenese are fighting for recognition and inclusion by the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Photo: Yang Jiaxin stands in front of anti-landing spikes near Guningtou. Cihu Lake’s secluded beach was part of the Battle of Guningtou in October 1949 that Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist troops defeated the Communists, halting the advance of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) towards Taiwan.
Kelly Schovanek
“Every night in Stone town, Zanzibar, the local boys put on a show at the oceans edge. In groups they launch themselves off the 15ft stone walls, performing tricks and dives as they fly through the air into the water. Some make it look good, others flail. Its all a wild spectacle to witness.”
Keri Oberly
“Looking north up the Chandalar River to the Brooks Range, the village of Vashrąįį K'ǫǫ (Arctic Village), Alaska, USA, sits just outside the southern border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For decades, the Gwich’in first peoples have been fighting to protect this sacred land against oil and gas development. They have survived off this land since time immemorial.”
Marguerite Gallorini
“This photo was taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, during a quarantine period. Not being able to go outside to take photographs, I started putting bread crumbs on my balcony and stalking the birds coming to eat them. On one snowy day, this little bird stood out by staying on the balcony and looking out—similarly to me stuck in my apartment. Even the bars reflect the prison-like feeling. But just like the bird knowing it can fly out whenever it chooses, I knew I was not going to be stuck forever. And I, at least, was shielded from the snow.”
Rasha Al Jundi
“This image is part of an ongoing project, titled "In the Name Of..", where I look at practices that people from different communities adopt in the name of their religious, cultural or other belief systems that they may have.
As part of my documentation of the Catholic minority in Goa, I focused on the community and personal angles of practicing the Christian faith in different parts of Goa, including the village of Aldona. This led me to visit a local elderly home run by nun, supported by the local village Church. I spent a week going back and forth to the home, interacting with the nuns, the residents and their visitors.
One day, while walking through the facility, I turn around to a window and notice the reflection of this long term female elderly resident, who was standing on the opposite rooftop in the natural morning sun and in a moment of personal contemplation. I chose this image as my submission for I believe it represents both: a visual reimagining or reinterpretation of a reflection; and the subject's personal moment of reimagining life—the latter, a human condition that we all go through at some point throughout our lives.”
Tatiana Lopez
“In the same way that stories develop and unfold in the material world, our dreams can access past memories that create a collective essence to be carried by our bodies. As bodies collect memories and share stories, our territories can also be shaped from reconstructed stories, collective memories, and attachments to our environments. This photo is part of a project called Makinu Nuka - I Dream, the series explores the question of how will dreams re-introduce us to our sacred commitment to the earth at a time when we have become separated from our divine source.”
Alexa Cole
“A family in Oregon (USA) watch in dismay as the waves wash ashore millions of pieces of plastic. The coast in this state is known for its rugged beauty, as well as for being wild and pristine. That reputation is in danger, as increasing amounts of plastic debris from the "Giant Pacific Garbage Patch" wash ashore each year with winter storms. Locals are fighting back through organizations such as SOLVE & Surfrider to host clean-ups, pass laws to ban single-use plastic items, educate people about options to reduce waste & reform consumption.”
Jeff Mikkelson
“A student hurries to class in the rural village of Bugene in Karagwe, Tanzania. Students at the Bugene Secondary School benefit from financial education courses sponsored by the local NGO KARUDECA, in parnership with SBFIC East Africa.”
Jonathan Lovett
“The work, "painted pink" is a part of a larger, on-going project entitled "Queering Nature". This is an image of my partner in the Redwoods of Northern California. The goal of this image is to create a queer ecology in which reality is painted pink, a stereotypical color associated with gay men. This image also displays a tender and inherently queer interaction with nature. Too often nature has been categorized and understood within a heterosexual way of thinking and understanding. Queer ecology liberates nature from that thinking and shows it for what it is, a vast, ever changing environment where everything is possible and queerness is normal and ever present.”
Lola Wallace
“Many years ago, I'd been struck by the painting "Portrait of Madeleine", by Marie-Guillemine Benoist, a painting that at it's time in 1800, was highly unusual for featuring a black woman, rendered in a Neo-classical pose. This caused much divisiveness amongst critics who saw it exhibited at the Salon Carre, where it became known as "noirceur" or "the black stain" on an otherwise acceptable exhibition. In the painting, Madeleine has her breast exposed- a tie back to the slave markets of Europe where black women where subject to bodily inspection to determine "value"; this is in contrast to her dignified pose and the fact that she was painted at all. My self portrait here is my reimagining of the painting, to recreate the moment of Madeleine whilst redressing her to return her ownership of dignity.”
Pengkuei Ben Huang
“The Japanese Government has been building 400 kms of seawalls in the Northeastern region, after the 2011 tsunami. Questions however, have been raised whether it will fend off future tsunami effectively.”
Rodrigo West
“Nowadays every child has to have a smartphone and many times they forget how to live the simple way of childhood—feeling the environment, having fun, playing with friends. The fluid times have been amazing with technology and innovative ways to live, but we have been overly-connected and sometimes we just need to be present to hear, contemplate and stop running.”
Stephanie Rose
“This image was a self portrait taken for the Photographers Without Borders class. It is an image of transformation in my coming out story of loss, fear, love and hope. It shows me reimagining my whole life, turning the past upside down for a new and true life.”
Steven Weisz
“COVID-19 and the quarantine has affected all of us. At times, the isolation can be overwhelming. So on one sunny day with slightly warmer temperatures, I ventured to Bartram Gardens in Philadelphia and photographed international movement artist, acrobat and aerialist, Nicole Burgio. It was a welcome relief and a restoration of balance—if only for a brief moment.”
Vincent Pohaku
“This photo takes me back to my younger days, when our island lifestyle was fulfilled with much simpler things. Like the Muumuu (island style dress), which has seemed to fade away from our island culture. This is how I would reimagine a more quality lifestyle within our island communities, instead of one where everyone is only concerned about the ‘rat race’ and themselves. Aloha, from Hawaii.”
Ben Garcia
“In an effort to stimulate my creativity in pandemic times, I turned to abstract photography. Playfully reimagining and reinterpreting my reality allowed me to get out of my head to create this photograph and the corresponding series.”
Jill Fraley
“Hales is standing near old lava flows on the day she first saw the Pacific Ocean, the day she traveled the furthest from her home in eastern Kentucky. We are heading to a conservation center in Hawai'i, where she will hold steady as a curious octopus climbs up to her shoulder. She holds onto a necklace with her name.”
Jodi Sware
“This photo was made as part of a personal project called Wisdom of Marriage where I photographed approximately 100 couples. I see this couple reimagining their marriage as well as who they are as they move out of parenthood and into being grandparents and soon great grandparents. They are easing out of hard work and transitioning into retirement as their children are working towards taking over their family farm, although I'm sure there will never be a true retirement for this hard-working couple.”
Laura Proctor
“I made this photograph at a Juneteenth 2020 protest in downtown Toronto, organized by Not Another Black Life in support of Black Lives Matter. I looked down at the spiralling chalk writing on the ground with the defiant "abolish the police" signs lying dead centre. I thought that this image represented the turmoil and change that has occurred in 2020. Like we're in the midst of a hurricane. This photo 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.”
Mathieu Cladidier
“It's 10:30am, on a sunny day in New York City. Honking, yelling, and dancing in the street because after three days the 2021 presidential race has been called and Joe Biden just won the election. It's not my country, I can't vote but it is where I live and I've seen what a devastating policy can do and I am happy to think of brighter days ahead of us. I just enjoy the moment, not taking photos at first. I want to be in, I want to live it and just take in 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.”
Nicole Cyhelka
“I created this self-portrait during my participation in the first Online Photographers Without Borders Storytelling School in the spring of 2020. I was exploring the relationship between humanity and nature - particularly during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, where many people, like myself, sought solace in the natural world - where the regular rhythms and cycles provided grounding and stability in a turbulent, uncertain time. I was hiking in a local forest, hoping to capture a full bloom of Ontario trilliums, when it started snowing - in early May! Initially frustrated, I saw the opportunity to create an otherworldly self-portrait to symbolize the peace of surrendering oneself to nature.”
Pascaline Le Bras
“What will it look like to travel after a pandemic? When we used to take a flight to escape crowded cities, will we now simply travel to look for human connection? The world is in the midst of a rebirth, redefining priorities and leaving what no longer serves us as human beings. This image, made in Ethiopia during my last trip before the pandemic, is a reflection of this awakening in hopes of reimagining the future of travel.”
Rita Silen
“In a small hospital in Hebron, Palestine, a woman awaits Cesarean 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, Cesarean section is the most commonly performed surgical procedure. Women's health services are vital to the well-being of communities, regions and countries. International exchange and sharing of expertise and best practices are just the beginning.“
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As a member of PWB, you not only get access to a wonderful community of visual change-makers, you also get:
Discounts on Storytelling School Courses.
Full access to “Storytelling for Change", our online learning series with noteworthy storytellers like Cristina Mittermeier, Ami Vitale, Steve Winter, Sharon Guynup, Daniel Berehulak, Krystle Wright, Benjamin Von Wong, and so many more!
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