Olga Smith, Contemporary Photography in France: Between Theory and Practice — Jill Glessing

Ciel variable 123 – THE POWER OF INTIMACY | Book Reviews
Authors: Jill Glessing | Artists: Olga Smith

[Summer 2023] By Jill Glessing Olga Smith Louvain, Leuven University Press, 2022, 230 pages [Excerpt] France, as a birthplace of photography, dominated surveys of the medium until the early twentieth century. It lost its primacy when the centre of the art world crossed the Atlantic, after the Second World War. Since then, international hegemony has […]

Elena Perlino, Indian Time — Michel Hellman

Ciel variable 123 – THE POWER OF INTIMACY | Book Reviews
Authors: Michel Hellman | Artists: Elena Perlino

[Summer 2023] By Michel Hellman Elena Perlino Paris et New Richmond, éditions Loco et éditions Escuminac, 2022, 176 pages [Excerpt] The expression “Indian time” has a pejorative connotation. It implies that “Indians” lack discipline and a sense of responsibility, in contrast to the supposed self-control of “Whites.” Saying that a person is on Indian time […]

The Mystery of. In conversation with the Sanchez Brothers — Gary Michael Dault

Ciel variable 122 – NIGHT ROUNDS | Book Reviews
Authors: Gary Michael Dault | Artists: Carlos & Jason Sanchez

[Winter 2023] By Gary Michael Dault Adam Leith Gollner Montréal, Anteism, 2022, 158 p. [Excerpt] This book’s apparently truncated title, The Mystery of – whether chosen by its subjects, photographers and filmmakers (and brothers) Jason Sanchez and Carlos Sanchez, or by the book’s author, Adam Leith Gollner – is as provocatively incomplete (or at least […]

Justine Kurland, Girl Pictures / Highway Kind — Étienne Ardaens

Ciel variable 122 – NIGHT ROUNDS | Book Reviews
Authors: Étienne Ardaens | Artists: Justine Kurland

[Winter 2023] Étienne Ardaens Justine Kurland New York, Aperture, 2020, 144 p. / New York, Aperture, 2021, 144 p. [Excerpt] Two photobooks recently published by Aperture provide an opportunity to rediscover the work of Justine Kurland. The series Girl Pictures, featured in a show at the Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery in 2018, appeared in book […]

Tendance Floue, Fragiles — Sophie Bertrand

Ciel variable 122 – NIGHT ROUNDS | Book Reviews
Authors: Sophie Bertrand | Artists: Tendance Floue

[Winter 2023] Sophie Bertrand Tendance Floue Paris, éditions Textuel, 2022, 190 p. [Excerpt] Fragiles is the most recent project of Tendance Floue, a French collective founded in 1991 that today comprises sixteen photographers – thirteen men and three women – with varied visual signatures. Although each member practises independently, the collective regularly produces joint projects […]

Sylvain Campeau, Écrans motiles — Daniel Canty

Ciel variable 121 – WANDERINGS | Book Reviews
Authors: Sylvain Campeau | Artists: Daniel Canty

[Fall 2022] By Daniel Canty Écrans motiles Montréal, Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2021, 280 p. [Excerpt] “Motility.” That’s the idea that Sylvain Campeau has chosen to summon for the title of his most recent book, Écrans motiles. If, like me, you’re wondering about the term, it is borrowed from the life sciences, in […]

Dialogue photographique sur la Route de la soie — Claudia Polledri

Ciel variable 121 – WANDERINGS | Book Reviews
Authors: Claudia Polledri

[Fall 2022] By Claudia Polledri Dialogue photographique sur la Route de la soie Nadar/Payram Paris, Éditions Le bec en l’air, 2021, 112 p [Excerpt] One book, two trajectories, a single “road” and photography: Dialogue photographique sur la Route de la soie is a surprising voyage through space, time, and the history of photography. Iranian photographer […]

Photogenic Montreal: Activisms and Archives in a Post-Industrial City — Cheryl Simon

Ciel variable 121 – WANDERINGS | Book Reviews
Authors: Cheryl Simon

[Fall 2022] By Cheryl Simon Martha Langford and Johanne Sloan (editors) Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021, 368 p. [Excerpt] The spectacular photograph on the cover of Photogenic Montreal: Activisms and Archives in a Post-Industrial City perfectly condenses the themes addressed throughout the book. Made by photojournalist Louise Abbott in the early morning of September 8, […]

Jocelyn Philibert, Metamorphosis of the real — Mona Hakim

Ciel variable 120 - FIGURES OF AFFIRMATION | Book Reviews
Authors: Mona Hakim | Artists: Jocelyn Philibert

[Summer 2022] By Mona Hakim. This major monograph on the photographer Jocelyn Philibert covers his production over more than thirty years. We know Philibert for his nocturnal landscapes focusing essentially – one might say obsessively – on the figure of the tree…

Jean Gagnon, Vidéocaméléon — Sylvain Campeau

Ciel variable 120 - FIGURES OF AFFIRMATION | Book Reviews
Authors: Sylvain Campeau | Artists: Jean Gagnon

[Summer 2022] By Sylvain Campeau Vidéocaméléon. Chroniques de l’art vidéo au Québec Montréal, Éditions Somme toute, 2021, 239 p. [Excerpt] Let’s start by saying it straight out, without splitting hairs: this book will be highly useful to everyone interested in the visual arts in Canada, and particularly in the emergence of video art in Quebec. […]

Matt Johnston, Photobooks & — Louis Perreault

Ciel variable 120 - FIGURES OF AFFIRMATION | Book Reviews
Authors: Louis Perreault | Artists: Matt Johnston

[Summer 2022] By Louis Perreault Photobooks & A critical companion to the contemporary medium Onomatopee, Eindhoven, Pays-Bas, 2021, 210 p. [Excerpt] Much has been written about the effervescence of the photobook as a medium since the early 2000s. The importance of books that retrace the history of the medium – celebrating the genre’s classics and […]

Gregory Halpern, ZZYZX – Louis Perreault

Ciel variable 105 – MONTREALITIES | Book Reviews
Authors: Louis Perreault | Artists: Gregory Halpern

May 18, 2022 [originally published in CV105 in Winter 2017] — In the photography world, the book continues to play an essential role of dissemination. Yet, beyond simply being a tool for promotion of a photographer’s work, the book is seen by many as a creative space on its own…

Valérian Mazataud, liwa mairin, la femme de l’eau — Serge Allaire

Ciel variable 119 - AGAINST NATURE | Book Reviews
Authors: Serge Allaire

[Winter 2022] Montréal, à compte d’auteur, 2021, non paginé By Serge Allaire [Excerpt] Valérian Mazataud’s most recent work takes us on an adventure to the island of Bobel, a huge rock rising out of the Caribbean Sea fifty kilometres off the coast of La Mosquita, one of the last untouched regions on the planet. The […]

Anne-Marie Proulx, Le Jardin d’après — Élisabeth Recurt

Ciel variable 119 - AGAINST NATURE | Book Reviews
Authors: Élisabeth Recurt | Artists: Anne-Marie Proulx

[Winter 2022] Paris, Éditions Loco, 2021, 192 p. By Élisabeth Recurt [Excerpt] Freely inspired by a novel by Anne Hébert,1 Anne-Marie Proulx’s photobook is composed of 125 black-and-white and colour photographs (taken on a 35 mm analogue camera and a cell phone), lines from plays (spoken by the protagonist of the novel, Flora Fontanges), and […]

Alexis Desgagnés, Ammoniaque — Ève Dorais

Ciel variable 118 - EXHIBITING PHOTOGRAPHY | Book Reviews
Authors: Ève Dorais | Artists: Alexis Desgagnés

[Fall 2021] Montréal, Les Éditions du Renard, 2021, non paginé By Ève Dorais [Excerpt] In an article in an issue of the magazine Elephant devoted to photography,1 Robert Shore notes that in recent decades photography has striven to assert its own materiality. Indeed, artists have found all sorts of ploys to highlight the medium’s materiality […]

La fête : The People Came to Party — Dayna McLeod

Ciel variable 118 - EXHIBITING PHOTOGRAPHY | Book Reviews
Authors: Dayna McLeod

[Fall 2021] Jean-François Prost Publication collaborative Québec, Éditions VU, 2021, 160 pages, français, anglais et portugais By Dayna McLeod [Excerpt] If you’ve missed in­-real­-life parties, being with people, and exhibitions during the pandemic, La Fête is a feast for the heart, head, and soul. The socially distanced isolation of the pandemic brings a chance to […]

Women Street Photographers — Ariane Noël de Tilly

Ciel variable 118 - EXHIBITING PHOTOGRAPHY | Book Reviews
Authors: Ariane Noël de Tilly

[Fall 2021] By Ariane Noël de Tilly [Excerpt] The image chosen to illustrate the cover of Women Street Photographers is certainly striking: a detail from Red Upsweep (2019) by B Jane Levine; the photograph is reproduced in its entirety inside the book. The centre of this truncated image is dominated by the head and shoulders […]

Ron Jude — Louis Perreault

Ciel variable 117 - SHIFTED | Book Reviews
Authors: Louis Perreault | Artists: Ron Jude

[Summer 2021] 12 Hz Ron Jude Londres, Mack Books, 2020, 128 p. Par Louis Perreault [Excerpt] Even before we open its cover, 12 Hz seems to vibrate on the table. As we plunge into the ice, rock, and powerful sea currents that mark out the pages of this book by American photographer Ron Jude, we […]

Une histoire mondiale des femmes photographes — Claudia Polledri

Ciel variable 117 - SHIFTED | Book Reviews
Authors: Claudia Polledri

[Summer 2021] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Histoire mondiale des femmes photographes Sous la direction de Luce Lebart et Marie Robert, Paris, Textuel, 2020, 506 p. Par Claudia Polledri (En français seulement)   See the magazine for the […]

Rejouer le vivant – Amélie Giguère

Ciel variable 117 - SHIFTED | Book Reviews
Authors: Amélie Giguère, Anne Bénichou

[Summer 2021] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Rejouer le vivant. Les reenactments, des pratiques culturelles et artistiques (in)actuelles Anne Bénichou Dijon, Les presses du réel, 2020, 421 p. Par Amélie Giguère (En français seulement)   See the magazine […]

Ouvrages à souligner — Jérôme Delgado

Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Book Reviews
Authors: Jérôme Delgado | Artists: Bertrand Carrière, Geneviève Cadieux, Isabelle Hayeur

[Hiver 2021] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Par Jérôme Delgado (En français seulement)   Suite de l’article et autres images dans le magazine : Ciel variable 116 – PAYSAGES MIROIRS  

Arles, Les Rencontres de la photographie — Bruno Chalifour

Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Book Reviews
Authors: Bruno Chalifour

[Summer 2020] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Une histoire française Françoise Denoyelle Paris, Les Rencontres d’Arles / Art Book Magazine 2019, 320 p. (ill. n&b) 50 ans d’histoire Françoise Denoyelle et Sam Stourdzé Paris, La Martinière, 2019, 278 […]

David McMillan — Pierre Dessureault

Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Book Reviews
Authors: Pierre Dessureault | Artists: David McMillan

[Summer 2020] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Croissance et Dégradation Pripiat et la zone d’exclusion de Tchernobyl David McMillan essai de Claude Baillargeon Göttingen, Steidl, 2019, 262 p., 200 photographies Par Pierre Dessureault (In French only)   See […]

Traces of Virgil as a Chalk Giant: Ewa Monika Zebrowski’s Meditations on Cy Twombly — James D. Campbell

Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Book Reviews
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Cy Twombly, Ewa Monika Zebrowski

August 11, 2022 [originally published in CV114 in Winter 2020] — By James D. Campbell. Since 2014, noted Canadian artist Ewa Monika Zebrowski has been exploring the universe of artist Cy Twombly on both sides of the Atlantic…

New and Worthy

Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Book Reviews

[Fall 2019] [Excerpt] David McMillan, Growth and Decay, Göttingen, Steidl Verlag, 2019, 260 p. Guillaume Simoneau, Murder, Londres, Mack, 2019, 96 p. Greg Girard, Tokyo Yokusaka, 1976-1983, Toronto, Magenta Foundation, 2019, 160 p. Louis Perreault, Les affluents, Montréal/Québec, Les Éditions du renard/VU, 2019, 96 p. Kim Waldron, Une autre femme_ Another Woman, New York, Galerie […]

Abendlied, Birthe Piontek — Guillaume Tomasi

Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Book Reviews
Authors: Guillaume Tomasi | Artists: Birthe Piontek

[Fall 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. New York, Gnomic Book 2019, 112 pages Par Guillaume Tomasi (French only) [See the printed or digital version of the magazine for the complete article.] Purchase this issue

New & Worthy

Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Book Reviews

[Summer 2019] [Excerpt] Sophie Hackett, Andrea Kunard, Urs Stahel (dir.), Anthropocène. Burtynsky, Baichwal, De Pencier, Toronto/Fredericton, Musée des beaux-arts de l’Ontario/Goose Lane Edtions, 2018, 250 p. Christine Shaw & Etienne Turpin (ed.), The Work of Wind: Land, Mississauga/Berlin, Blackwood Gallery/K. Verlag, 2018, 336 p. Myriam Jacob-Allard, T’envoler, Montréal, Dazibao, 2019, 38 p. Isabelle Hayeur, Dépayser/Strangeland, […]

New & Worthy

Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Book Reviews

February 15, 2023 [originally published in CV111 in Winter 2019] — This eighty page artists´ bookwork, Berlin Wall. Truro, Nova Scotia, was produced in collaboration with designer Bryan Gee and first presented as part of the installation “The Labour of Commemoration,” at Prefix ICA, in 2017. The authors examine the post-1989 history of a set of six Berlin Wall slabs that found their way to a vacant lot in the centre of Truro, Nova Scotia, in 2000. The book addresses the issue of the absence of post-1989 histories of the Wall, through interviews and newspaper articles…

Clémence Cottard Hachem et Nour Salamé (dir.), Sur la photographie au Liban — Claudia Polledri

Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Book Reviews
Authors: Claudia Polledri

[Winter 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.

Martha Langford (dir.), Narratives Unfolding: National Art Histories in an Unfinished World — Erika Wicky

Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Book Reviews
Authors: Erika Wicky

[Winter 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.