To Capture the Fleeting
As in: ”I am off on an adventure to capture the fleeting,” but also as in understanding the fugacity of all things. In the calm of nature, with patience, to wait. To find a balance between “It's now or never" and "There is a time for everything.“ To capture the ephemeral such as rituals of passing time, for a glimmer, a reflection, a shadow can all by themselves modify our perception of the moment, in an instant. Photography, as the word itself states, has light as a material. Through the slow writing of light on the film surface, I gather traces. From its transient passage, I capture nuances. I use pinhole photography because it acts as a balm on the fragility and force of the fleeting. While the sober and pure contrast of the juxtaposition of two intervals of a single space-time recalls the unicity of each instant. Time flies, the river flows and light fools with us.
Time flies, the river flows and light fools with us.
Annie St-Jean has devoted herself to a photography and video practice since 2012. Passionate about poetry, fascinated by the slowness, sensibility and materiality of the gelatine silver based technique, she make her own cameras for each of her projects: simple black boxes with a pinhole acting as a lens. The pinhole camera is not only the ancestor of the photo camera, it is a tool of an unadorned magic. Annie St-Jean received the CALQ, “artist of the year award“ for the Centre du Québec region in 2021.
Aires de création project
Annie St-Jean's exhibition at Center d'art Jacques et Michel Auger :
April 6 to May 6, 2023 • Opening April 5, 2023 at 5 pm
Aires de Création project allows artists to carry out a research/creation residency at Centre SAGAMIE prior to the distribution of their work in one of the project's partner exhibition centers:
- ARPRIM centre d'essai en art imprimé (Montreal)
- Centre d'art Jacques et Michel Auger (Victoriaville)
- Centre national d’exposition (Jonquière)
- Galerie L'Œuvre de l'Autre (Saguenay)
- IQ L'Atelier (Alma)
- Langage Plus (Alma)
Initiated by Centre SAGAMIE, this program favours the implementation of a chain of collaboration between the centers, in order to support and disseminate the artists' projects. This project is made possible thanks to the contribution of each partner artist-run centre and the financial support of the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean Territorial Partnership Program under the Partnership Agreement between the CALQ and the MRCs of the region.
