Under the brilliant gaze of Joannie Lafrenière, the Hochelaga district springs up before our eyes, bursts with a thousand lights, is transposed and imposes itself in a series of cascades of bright colors which the photographer gives us as a gift. This remarkable exhibition has just opened at the McCord Stewart Museum. In the middle of the dark cavities of this too often unloved district, Joannie Lafrenière knew how to bring in the beams of her own light.
Is color the main character of this exhibition called Hochelaga. Changing Montreal ? Voluble, radiant, Joannie Lafrenière explains to me: “Color is a medium in itself. And yes, color is a character in this exhibition. »
For two decades, the photographer and director has lived in the Hochelaga district. “I love this neighborhood,” she says. But who, in front of his photographs, could doubt it?
For me, it’s a colorful neighborhood, colorful
While many photographers are scrambling to get farther afield, her goal is to delve deeper into the reality of a world on her doorstep. “I never thought of going anywhere else when I was offered this project. Hochelaga, I walk it, I observe it, I feel it in my body. »
see better
Director, Joannie Lafrenière produced Gabor (2021), a delightful film about acclaimed photographer Gabor Szilasi. “For me as for him, photography remains a means. A way to access all sorts of other things that interest us…”
Photography helps him see better. “Basically, photography is just a pretext. A pretext to meet people, a world. It’s a way of doing ethnology, of extending our gaze. Often I go for a walk. I’m bringing my little camera…”
She knows the waitress from her snack bar, the handyman of old local bicycles, the hairdresser who reads his newspaper at dawn, the florist who never fades, and so many other people. She talks about them with infinite affection and tenderness, while looking at them with her own eyes. Yes, let’s say it, because it matters: in these photos, there is indeed a signature. That of Joannie Lafrenière.
“It’s not the same as if I had worked in black and white. Hochelaga is not an easy neighborhood. I know it. But already in color, it says something else. For me, it’s a colorful neighborhood, colorful. »
The world of Hochelaga
Does Hochelaga have something universal for her? “The neighborhood is universal in the sense that I would like, as in this neighborhood, that we can take care of each other, that we forge links. »
His carefully framed photos often feature characters. But everything in their existence depends – as we quickly see – on a mesh with their environment. Beyond the characters, it is the social fabric, its complexity, the relationships that are both fragile and strong that result from it that the photographer is interested in.
The entire exhibition is structured around multimedia installations where photographs, carried by the words of the poet Benoit Bordeleau, are offered to the gaze of visitors in a skilfully worked unfolding. “My wish is to first find something to speak to people’s hearts and stomachs. ” Mission accomplished.
In one of the many rooms where different facets of this exhibition nestle, three walls are covered with photos that are not his. “I went to the History Workshop in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. I was told about the Lebeau-Robichaud collection. In the 1970s, Yvon Lebeau and Lise Robichaud photographed Hochelaga from all angles. “I found in their photographs the same affection that I put in mine, the same relationship to the world. Joannie Lafrenière therefore went to meet them. And she spoke to them, like to so many other people in the neighborhood.
Here is also Claude, a former soldier with a rather irascible character. He lived for years in a simple abandoned container, a stone’s throw from a river that sees hundreds of thousands on boats from afar.
A photo shows a tattoo of Claude up close. The skin is withered. The tattoo looks washed out. It reads ” Mother “. Mom. Aside from birth, what had this blind world offered Claude? When he died, Joannie Lafrenière received a message on her telephone box. You can listen to it. Someone tells him that Claude’s eyes have been donated.
From Paul-André, a florist who closes shop after half a century of activity, she films the last day of work. Here are its dead flowers, leaves and branches that have lived for you. He speaks. His life, is it not that of thousands of people?
A circular project
The photographer’s personal signature is clearly visible in each of her images and multimedia installations. The high value of his work is beyond doubt. But for her, the essential is elsewhere. “My initial intention was to do a circular project. I wanted to make the exhibition go back to the people who are at the base of it. I do not wish to validate what I do with community wishes. It’s not that ! We can just talk to each other, in a museum. But what gives? I see myself as a bridge between communities. »
She welcomes the idea of being able to show her exhibition to people who are represented there. “Michel, the barber, I think this will be the first time he’s come to a museum, for the opening. It’s great, I think! This barber, she met him while walking in the streets, very early in the morning. “It opens its doors at 5:30 a.m. I often stopped to see it. I read him his horoscope and I left…”
Joannie Lafrenière is wearing, the day I met her, a long orange jacket whose tone is the same as the panels that support the texts of her exhibition. “I love orange! It changes everything, this color… I would have put it everywhere! Yes, for her, color carries the gaze of the world, beyond its dark orbits. “There are lots of colors in Hochelaga. There’s a lot of black too. I know it. I don’t hide it. I see him. But I leave it to others to talk about darkness…”