Montreal women: A tribute

I have always known my favourite subjects are people. Recently it has come to the point that very little else interests me to shoot.

This might be because static subjects like certain landscapes will be there for a long time. I seek the greater challenge of snapping shots of people==in constant flux as they go about their day.

Perhaps as some blend of documentary and art, this for me means capturing a stranger simply as they are. I am always after that "mundane" moment in which a person, unaware to themselves, is acting naturally--emphasized by, say, a fleeting gesture or reaction--yet is intriguing because it reveals something about who they are.

Predictably, that is what I found myself doing on my recent trip to Montreal. Primarily along Saint Catherine Street but also in other areas of the city, I was drawn to the wonderful diversity of women. They all seemed to beautifully defy their portrayal in mainstream media as objects of desire, rather than full persons in their own right and often with a pensiveness or gravitas that evokes admiration.

Though a minute snippet of Montreal, these photographs I believe represent the universal humanity of women, which it pains me not to see enough of on billboards, in magazines, and advertisements. I foresee myself doing much more of this kind of photography, reflecting my desire, as I once told a friend, to introduce a political component to my work: encouraging others to rethink unfair preconceptions about gender, created and reinforced by the culture we live in.