Tireless Phyllis Lambert | The Press

She came briskly and planted herself straight in the middle of the showroom, ready to answer all of our questions. At 96, Phyllis Lambert remains as lively, curious and philosophical as she was sixty years ago when she began studying architecture in Chicago.

She also remains the committed woman she has always been, devoting time and energy to protecting heritage, particularly that of Montreal, “her” city. The morning of this meeting, I had also heard it in an ICI Première report about a church, one of the very many that are currently threatened with demolition in Quebec.

But if a handful of journalists surrounded the founder of the Canadian Center for Architecture and philanthropist, a member of the illustrious Bronfman family, it was not to listen to her speak of “grey stones”, her favorite subject, but of another passion that is part of his life: photography.

Thanks to the exhibition Observation of the Pierre-François Ouellette Art contemporain gallery, the public discovers this little-known aspect of Phyllis Lambert’s career. Since the mid-1950s, the well-travelled artist has taken no less than 80,000 shots.

A book, Observation Is a Constant That Underlies All Approaches, published a few months ago, offers us a selection of around 300 photographs. The curator of the exhibition, Adad Hannah, selected 70 snapshots that go far beyond architectural examples.

The look that Phyllis Lambert poses with the many cameras that have accompanied her during her life (she even took underwater photography) is both that of the architect and of the lover of old stones. , but also of those who are interested in urban life and the human beings who are part of it. “Architecture is first and foremost about the environment,” she says.

The Habitat 67 project at the time of its construction, the Seagram Plaza fountain in 1961, the Temple of Apollo in Turkey, the Halles de Paris before their demolition, cyclists during the Grand Prix du Parisien in 1963, the n the Jantar Mantar observatory, in New Delhi, all these places pass through the prism of the person holding the camera, which is the essence of photography.

By discovering these photographs, we understand that Phyllis Lambert has adopted this sentence of Jacques Ferron who has already written that architecture first expresses a civilization.

It is fascinating to see, when you visit the exhibition with the author of the pictures, that she has a phenomenal memory of the places and times when they were taken. She comments on each of the photographs by evoking memories that remain clinging to time like sea urchins to rocks.

I wanted to know what is the motivation behind taking these tens of thousands of shots. A desire to document? “Document… I don’t really like that word,” replied Phyllis Lambert, tit for tat. I first made these photos for me. »

We salute here the work of David Cyrenne who had the courage to dive into the thousands of negatives, slides and other media (for several years) to make choices. And let’s salute the expertise of those who created juxtapositions between the various photos, both in the book and for the exhibition.

It is amazing that these photos have never been shown before today. “I never thought it was possible,” says Phyllis Lambert simply. After the book project, there was an opportunity. »

We must salute Pierre-François Ouellette’s initiative to offer the Montreal public this very fine exhibition, which makes us aware of the importance of the work of architects and the ravages to which their work is subjected, even if Phyllis Lambert makes a point of specifying that the choice of the photos was not made in this direction.

“Yes, I often denounce the ravages, but that’s not what I wanted to show here”, she explained to us. His photographs are the result of an observation that tries to establish a link between art and the “various fields of human knowledge”.

Phyllis Lambert continues to take photographs. But it’s been a long time since she no longer uses her 35 mm cameras, Nikon or others. Today, it is equipped with the latest model of iPhone slipped in her pocket that she walks in the streets of the cities.

I met Phyllis Lambert last Wednesday during a press visit to the exhibition. Saturday, at the beginning of the afternoon, she gave a conference in front of architectural historians gathered in Montreal before participating in a public event as part of her exhibition Observation.

We would all like to have a part of this energy, of this passion which remains intact.

This need to immortalize what his eye grabs is still present. Besides, she couldn’t resist photographing my colleague Charles William Pelletier… while he was photographing her.

Elusive, Phyllis Lambert is still. She understood that this is what brings her closer to eternity.

Observationuntil May 20, at the Pierre-François Ouellette gallery