This project is part of a more global research project on the photographic medium, in which two distinct parts will serve as a premise. As current research focuses on the transformations of undeveloped, unfixed photosensitive paper, which continually changes color, the aim will be to capture - through digitization - specific states of this transformation, which will then be printed in large format. While this first part of the research focuses on the present moment, the second will take a closer look at the past - and its contribution to the present - by digitizing a corpus of archival photos that bear witness to memory and oblivion. Placed in dialogue, these two parts will reveal, on the one hand, the erasure of the present, and on the other, the reappearance of the past.
Artist from Montreal, currently completing a Master in Fine Arts at the School of Art of the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg), Benjamin Perron combines studies in sociology and in art. He adopts a sociological perspective in his artistic approach. «I’m interested in art and the photographic medium in our contemporary society by employing alternative and experimental processes, usually slow and in unique prints in opposition to the acceleration of society and the multiplication of digital images.» Furthermore, he give special attention to recuperation and reusing of found material. He fashions works from elements that have been devalued or have lost their initial value, be it with expired photographic paper or weeds. He also questions the norms of photography, both in the processes and in the exhibition strategies, as a way to create a visual experience that allows one to be in relation to the images while questioning the medium used.