Disraeli revisited | A page of our photographic history

Fifty years later, the McCord Stewart Museum is bringing back to life the dazzling documentary work that photographers Claire Beaugrand-Champagne, Michel Campeau, Roger Charbonneau and Cedric Pearson produced in 1972 at Disraeli. The exhibition, whose curator is Zoé Tousignant, returns to this sensitive look at a Quebec village and the controversy it had caused…

Eric Clement
The Press

During the summer of 1972, four young urban photographers left for the Appalachians, thanks to the Youth Perspectives program launched by Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Their objective: to narrate with their devices the daily life of Disraeli. Living in a farm, they integrate into the population and take hundreds of photos: portraits of children, families, images of residences, interiors, village activities, workers.

In December 1972, the public and the media discovered these images for the first time, exhibited at the Centaur in Montreal. The journalist from The Press Gilles Toupin – who then covered the visual arts – is in shock. “Their quality and this plunge into the unvarnished daily life of the ordinary world, of people from our region, made me understand what these images, more than documentaries, would represent in terms of wealth for generations to come,” he says. The four photographers accomplished a remarkable work of memory with a new aesthetic approach for the time. Yes, Quebec photography was taking off. »

But it was during the publication, in 1974, of 18 of these photos in the supplement Outlook — inserted in daily newspapers such as The Press and The sun — that the project is popularized. The sudden high visibility (550,000 readers) and the simplistic title of the report – which the photographers had not chosen – lead to negative reactions to Disraeli, including those of the mayor, the notary and the priest, who consider that the point of view focused on the village is miserable. “We called our project Disraeli, a human experience, says photographer Roger Charbonneau. In Outlookthey had titled Disraeli in pictures, when it wasn’t. »

The controversy even swelled when Pierre Vallières retorted by publishing in The duty an article in which he defended the “honest” approach of photographers.

The exhibit tells the whole story. It includes 144 photographs, 67 of which have never been exhibited. There is also a new video montage with sound clips recorded at the time, especially during the photo shoots. We feel a great closeness between the photographers and the people who are visibly very happy to participate in the project. “That’s why when a media reported that the notary said that we had photographed the most marginal things of Disraeli, it was really spitting in the face of the people we had photographed”, says the photographer Cedric Pearson.

During the preparation of the exhibition, Zoé Tousignant and members of the museum went several times to Disraeli, to meet people, including the local History Society. “We perceived that they now consider these images to be precious historical documents,” says Zoé Tousignant. The relationship to the image has changed. And they told us that in 1972, not everyone shared the criticisms of the mayor, the notary and the priest. »

“We really made friends with the people who lived on the row where we were staying,” recalls Michel Campeau. I drove around, I stopped and went to see people. We were in good faith. I disagree with the fact that we would have shown images out of context. When there was the controversy, we fell out of our chairs. We were sad for these people who found themselves at odds with this story. »

“We had a lot of trouble, adds Claire Beaugrand-Champagne. Small children called me “aunt”! But I continued to do this kind of project, even pushing it further, by talking to people and telling their stories. »

This exhibition is the last of the McCord Stewart Museum under the direction of Suzanne Sauvage who, after 13 years in this position, is retiring. “I am very proud of what we have achieved over all these years,” she told The Presspaying tribute to its teams, “of very high quality”. Disraeli revisited is a beautiful last page of his career. A landmark chapter in the contemporary history of Quebec photography. And an ever-current reflection on image rights, our sensitivity to criticism and the social impact of art.

Disraeli revisited — Chronicle of a Quebec photographic eventat the McCord Stewart Museum, until February 19.