BIOGRAPHY
In 1969 I graduated from Sir George Williams University in Montreal where I studied Fine Arts and painting in particular. During that period the New York Color–Field painters were in fashion and I worked in a mode of geometric abstraction.
Immediately after graduation I became more interested in conceptual art and began using the camera as a recording device rather than an esthetic means of expression. I began experimenting with the 3M Color in Color machine, the first colour copier, and had an exhibition of this work at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1979 (Catalogue enclosed).
In 1975, the American street photographer Lee Friedlander came to Montreal to give a workshop and I decided to participate in it out of a sense of curiosity. I was immediately overwhelmed with the virtuosity of his technique and the uniqueness of his vision. He would give photographic assignments to the group and return a couple of weeks later for critiques. He was very complementary of my work, which encouraged me to take "straight photography" more seriously. At this point I began to have an intuitive feeling that the syntax and vocabulary of black & white photography were quickly being exhausted so from that point on, I switched to switch to colour, which at that time was still considered a novelty.
In 1978 I received a grant from the Canada Council to continue to explore the possibilities of the medium.
My self-assigned goal was to try produce colour photographs which went beyond mere documentation by maintaining a formal balance between form and content, while at the same time still containing a mysterious poetic element. At that point I decided to move to New York to be immersed in a more visually stimulating environment. I photographed the city intensively for the next five years. In 1979, the first results of this work were exhibited in Paris by Robert Delpire at his gallery Nouvel Observateur in a two-person show with Lynne Cohen called Silences et Stridences. Oxford University Press published my first full-length book, New York Inside Out, with an introduction by William S. Burroughs. The book was launched at the Gotham Book Mart Gallery in New York in 1984.
In 1980, I had a unique opportunity to photograph behind the scenes at the making of the John Huston film Annie. I was commissioned, along with William Eggleston, Gary Winogrand, Stephen Shore, and Joel Meyerowitz to produce a series of photographs for a book, published by Abbeville Press called Annie on Camera.
During the late 80's I cast my photographic net further afield, photographing Warsaw, Paris, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Las Vegas, as well as Montreal and Toronto. Thames & Hudson published the work from this period in a book titled Colour is Power with an introduction by Max Kozloff. The book served as a catalogue for an exhibition under the same name which traveled to museums in Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Poland and Germany. American Photographer magazine and the Globe & Mail nominated it as one of the best photo books of the year. The National Magazine Association awarded the silver medal for best portfolio published in a Canadian art magazine, Border Crossings in 2002.
In 2010, I was invited with a group of other photographers, including Nan Golden, Philip-Lorca diCorsia, Lynne Cohen and Candida Höfer to photograph Venice in support of the Venice in Peril Fund. An exhibition titled Real Venice was presented in conjunction with the 54th Venice Biennale at the Abby San Giorgio Maggiore. The exhibition travelled to Somerset House in London in 2011.
Several years ago I felt I needed a complete change of subject matter and decided to engage the natural world.
I went to the Botanical Gardens daily, photographing flowers, trees and shrubs. I used the same compositional strategies as I do with as my city pictures. I try to ignore the literal subject and reduce the visual elements to pure colour and abstract form. I titled the series Colour–Fields.