Flash Forward Recognizes Emerging Photographers, and The Curators Who Love Them

Flash Forward is a five-day biennial event that kicks off in Toronto's Liberty Village. From October 6th to the 10th, the festival, sourced from The Magenta Foundation, will feature the works of emerging photographers from Canada, The United States and The United Kingdom.

They say that a picture speaks a thousand words. And maybe that's true. But then what's to be said about a thousand pictures? Well, maybe not a thousand, but at least a lot of them, all in once place. Each one more beautiful than the next. How many words is that? Words with pictures, or words for pictures. Or, sorry, not pictures, but photographs. Because there is a difference, you know.

If you didn't know, and until recently I didn't know either, you had better free up your weekend, and start counting. 

Robyn McCallum and Danielle Forest, the winners of the Flash Forward Emerging Curator Competition, will be presenting Where Is Here - the most buzzed about showcase of the entire festival. 

Forest, who was raised in Winnipeg and who received her MA in Art History at The University of Toronto, and McCallum, who graduated from Image Arts at Ryerson University, worked together to carefully select due talent for the exhibit. Both women - who also work at the Bau Xi Photo Gallery in Toronto's art district - sit down with us to discuss their show, the featured artists, and the impervious definition of the word art. YIKES!

So, what is Flash Forward?
Danielle: Flash Forward is an annual competition set forth by the Magenta Foundation that awards emerging international photographs. With a growing number of artists awarded, the Flash Forward Festival came out of this.
Robyn: It is a series of exhibitions, including each a Canadian, American, British, Swiss and an International group show, as well as workshops and lectures to celebrate emerging photographers.

Tell us a bit about the show that you curated.
D: Robyn and I won the emerging curators competition to curate the Canadian exhibition. Titled "Where is Here," the exhibition is framed by Northrop Frye's description of the Canadian psychology against the country's physicality or geography.
R: Collectively, the treatment of interior and exterior spaces by these artists suggested a re-reading of Frye's theories against the rubric of contemporary Canadian photography. We were interested in how these photographers are approaching the Canadian tradition of landscape, or alternatively, how they are not approaching it.

How did you select the photographers being shown at your exhibit?
R: Because we're emerging ourselves, we wanted to make sure that we were being supportive of our own community in selecting work from our peers.
D: Both of us keep little messy notepads with artists' names scribbled inside. When we see something we like, be it in a gallery or on the web, we'll note it to reference later.

Was it tough to choose?
R: It was definitely tough for Danielle (pictured at right) and I! Due to the nature of the emerging curator competition, we had committed to an exhibition concept, but hadn't committed to any work. So it was difficult in that sense to already have these narrow constraints when looking for emerging photographers.
D: Finding emerging artists can be a feat as well, they don't always get the opportunity to show their work publicly, which is why FF is so important. Maintaining blogs or websites that are easy to navigate definitely helped our search. Besides all that though, it's always tough, there are a lot of excellent emerging photographers in Canada and we wish we could have featured more!

Who didn't make the cut, but gets an honorable mention?
D: Jeremy Jansen didn't make the cut, not because we didn't want him in the show, but because of various logistical details... Well, he was away. His work is incredible, particularly the collaborative project he did with Adam Levett, Sara Cwynar and Maryanne Casasanta....
R: Actually, that's how we came across Sara Cwynar (a featured artist), she had been in that exhibition with Jeremy. Also Danielle and I are big fans of a new collective of photojournalists in Toronto, known as the Boreal collective. It wasn't right for this exhibition, but we still want to work with them! Jennilee Marigomen and Becky Comber were two other artists we looked at. We had been mulling over their work for awhile and then found out they were part of the Flash Forward Group show.

The focus of the event is to shine some light on emerging talent. Who should we be keeping our eyes on in the coming years?
R: All of the artists in our exhibition are worth keeping your eye on! People I would definitely keep an eye on are Elliott Wilcox, a young British photographer who was a recipient of the Lucie Discovery of the Year' award, he shows at Bau-Xi Photo. Also Andrew Myers, a recent Ryerson Graduate.
D: I would also keep an eye on Ferit Kuyas, he's more established in Europe but has only recently broken into the North American market.

Coming hot on the heels of Nuit Blanche, some Torontonians may be a little 'art'ed out. Why should people make it out to Flash Forward?
D: Well, they should come out to support emerging talent and take note of the direction that photography is taken. Flash Forward is an excellent way to see a lot of photography all at one time.
R: Yeah, and the festival is not just exhibitions. It's also lectures and presentations which are all free. They're useful to people who are either into photography now, or would like to get into photography.

Ok, so I have to ask: Artist is a tough term to define - how do you define it?
D: I think "Good artist" is tougher to define.

Good answer. But, for years, old school critics have argued that photography is not really a fine art. Why do you think people say that?
D: Every art movement - meaning any change in the direction of art - has been met with some sort of resistance. Robyn (pictured at left) and I still overhear gallery-goers scoff at modernist paintings that they think their kids could have painted! But, photography is still a young medium, relatively speaking, and there's still a lack of critical discourse surrounding it.
R: On top of that, photography doesn't have the same prominence in public institutions as mediums like painting or sculpture. However, things like the Grange Prize, Contact and the Flash Forward Festival are really helping to propel the medium.

Then, what separates a person with a camera from someone whose an artist?
D: The same thing that separates a person with a paint brush from someone whose an "artist."

There are plenty of well-known photographers being studied and celebrated around the world, many of which are women. Who are your favorite female photographers?
D: I love this question! I actually just saw Women Art Revolution as part of TIFF and it was filled with female artists who incorporate photography like Hannah Wilke and Ana Mendieta. Of course, Cindy Sherman is one of the most well-known photographers, who also happens to be a female. Others that are working now are Robyn Cumming, Dominique Rey, Diana Thorneycroft, Candice Breitz and Sarah Anne Johnson.
R: Some other celebrated female photographer include Diane Arbus and Shirin Neshat. I also really like Cecilia Berkovic, Karin Bubas, Sara Angelucci, Meera Margaret Singh and Kelly Mark.

Finally, there is that saying, you know the one, and I'm probably going to use it in my forward (*and I did) that goes 'a picture speaks a thousand words'. With the shoe on the other foot, my foot, the writer's foot, can a thousand words ever properly sum up a picture?
R: No.

Flash Forward's "Where Is Here" takes place on October 10th, at 20 Mowat Ave., 3:00 PM - 9:00 PM.

Billie Misha
		About the author:
		Billie got her start in the media industry as a photographer. Snapping on red carpets and at film events, she quickly learned that if a picture speaks a thousand words, a blogger speaks a million. She has written for dozens of websites and online publications, and loves to scoop stories on the steamiest scandals, the biggest and best trends,and whatever else is making news RIGHT NOW!
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