2017 PHOTOPOLIS SYMPOSIUM
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Photopolis Symposium: Practices & Explorations
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library
5440 Spring Garden Road, Halifax, NS
Free to attend!
This day-long symposium will explore a number of topics that are of critical concern for individuals who take an interest in contemporary photographic practice. Our impulses to document our experiences, from multiple perspectives continue to be a part of the photographic discourse that this symposium embraces and investigates. All are welcome. There will be no fee to attend the Symposium due to the generous support of the Halifax Central Library and our sponsors.
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library
5440 Spring Garden Road, Halifax, NS
Free to attend!
This day-long symposium will explore a number of topics that are of critical concern for individuals who take an interest in contemporary photographic practice. Our impulses to document our experiences, from multiple perspectives continue to be a part of the photographic discourse that this symposium embraces and investigates. All are welcome. There will be no fee to attend the Symposium due to the generous support of the Halifax Central Library and our sponsors.
Photopolis Symposium Schedule:
9:30am
Opening remarks: Wilma Needham, President of Photopolis
10:00 – 11:00am
Locating Photography
The three presenters, Alvin Comiter (former NSCAD University Professor), Chad Tobin (Sydney, N.S. photographer), and Gül Ilgaz (Photopolis feature exhibitor from Istanbul, Turkey), discuss the influence that context, both the accidental and the planned, plays in their photo work, highlighting urban/natural landscape, immersion in unfamiliar locations, and the forces of cultural change. Panel Chair: Lynn Ellis, Photographer/ViewPoint Gallery Member.
11:00am
Keynote Speaker: Abdi Osman
Abdi Osman is a Photopolis feature exhibitor from Toronto, Ontario. Osman’s presentation will address photo-based documentary strategies to reflect upon African diasporic themes of migration, gender and contemporary Western urban experience across specific communities.
12:00 – 1:00pm
LUNCH BREAK
1:00pm
Keynote Speaker: Catherine Martin
Picking Up the Pieces Through Imagery and Oral History
Catherine Martin, a member of the Millbrook Mi’kmaw community, is an independent producer, international award winning director, communications consultant, facilitator, drummer and the first Mi’kmaw filmmaker from the Atlantic Region. Catherine Martin will narrate her family’s story of Turtle Grove, Dartmouth, at the time of the Halifax Explosion, and her strategies to retrieve and represent the narratives behind this event.
2:00 – 3:00pm
Photography, Mourning & Healing
Photography has long been a vehicle to process the trauma of losing a loved one. Anthony Enns (Dalhousie University Associate Professor of Contemporary Culture) speaks from a photo historical point of view about photographic memorial practices. Lorraine Field (Artist/NSCAD University Professor) and Ian Willms (Toronto Photographer and Photojournalist/Founding Member of Boreal Collective) discuss their artwork drawing from personal experiences of loss. Panel Chair: Adrian Fish, Photographer/NSCAD University Professor and Chair of Media Arts.
3:15 – 4:30pm
Photography & Communities
Photography as an activist practice in communities has been a powerful force for retrieving history and voice. Groupe Socio-Foto, Jacinthe LeBlanc, Rémi Lévesque, and André LeBlanc (Moncton, N.B.), and Turtle Grove Project youth members, Brandy Bernard, Sabrina DiMattia, Aiden Gillis, William Marshall Johnson, Kehisha Wilmot along with facilitators Killa Atencio and Hannah Minzloff (all presently in Halifax and Dartmouth) will present the stories of their community research and photo work. Corinne Gilroy (Photographer, Writer, Library Manager) will provide an overview of the social and educational dynamics of this practice. Panel Chair: Sharon Murray, Concordia University PhD candidate, Art History/NSCAD University Sessional Faculty.
9:30am
Opening remarks: Wilma Needham, President of Photopolis
10:00 – 11:00am
Locating Photography
The three presenters, Alvin Comiter (former NSCAD University Professor), Chad Tobin (Sydney, N.S. photographer), and Gül Ilgaz (Photopolis feature exhibitor from Istanbul, Turkey), discuss the influence that context, both the accidental and the planned, plays in their photo work, highlighting urban/natural landscape, immersion in unfamiliar locations, and the forces of cultural change. Panel Chair: Lynn Ellis, Photographer/ViewPoint Gallery Member.
11:00am
Keynote Speaker: Abdi Osman
Abdi Osman is a Photopolis feature exhibitor from Toronto, Ontario. Osman’s presentation will address photo-based documentary strategies to reflect upon African diasporic themes of migration, gender and contemporary Western urban experience across specific communities.
12:00 – 1:00pm
LUNCH BREAK
1:00pm
Keynote Speaker: Catherine Martin
Picking Up the Pieces Through Imagery and Oral History
Catherine Martin, a member of the Millbrook Mi’kmaw community, is an independent producer, international award winning director, communications consultant, facilitator, drummer and the first Mi’kmaw filmmaker from the Atlantic Region. Catherine Martin will narrate her family’s story of Turtle Grove, Dartmouth, at the time of the Halifax Explosion, and her strategies to retrieve and represent the narratives behind this event.
2:00 – 3:00pm
Photography, Mourning & Healing
Photography has long been a vehicle to process the trauma of losing a loved one. Anthony Enns (Dalhousie University Associate Professor of Contemporary Culture) speaks from a photo historical point of view about photographic memorial practices. Lorraine Field (Artist/NSCAD University Professor) and Ian Willms (Toronto Photographer and Photojournalist/Founding Member of Boreal Collective) discuss their artwork drawing from personal experiences of loss. Panel Chair: Adrian Fish, Photographer/NSCAD University Professor and Chair of Media Arts.
3:15 – 4:30pm
Photography & Communities
Photography as an activist practice in communities has been a powerful force for retrieving history and voice. Groupe Socio-Foto, Jacinthe LeBlanc, Rémi Lévesque, and André LeBlanc (Moncton, N.B.), and Turtle Grove Project youth members, Brandy Bernard, Sabrina DiMattia, Aiden Gillis, William Marshall Johnson, Kehisha Wilmot along with facilitators Killa Atencio and Hannah Minzloff (all presently in Halifax and Dartmouth) will present the stories of their community research and photo work. Corinne Gilroy (Photographer, Writer, Library Manager) will provide an overview of the social and educational dynamics of this practice. Panel Chair: Sharon Murray, Concordia University PhD candidate, Art History/NSCAD University Sessional Faculty.
