Defamiliarizing the City

PHOTOGRAPHY | PROJECTS

These photographs were taken in late March at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown in Downtown Montreal for the final assignment of "Architecture and Photography."

Rue Sainte-Catherine.

Many of Montreal’s iconic locations utilise colour and light. By eliminating colour and manipulating light, it defamiliarizes the setting. Defamiliarization is an artistic technique that presents common things in a strange or unfamiliar way. In addition, long exposure photography is a way of documenting a subject over a period in a single image. This method focuses on the static and blurs any movement, including light. The settings have been manipulated to abstract and exaggerate the scene, but it is still possible to find the familiar in the photograph. For example, even without the presence of the actual subject, the beams of light from Place Ville Marie give away the architecture. 

Beams of light from Place Ville Marie.

Quartier des Spectacles is a dynamic and colourful area, always full of people and activities. However, with the recent closure of the space and the reappropriation as a Covid-19 testing facility alone makes Place des Festivals feel foreign and eerie. This is further emphasised by the lifeless photograph.

Place des Festivals converted to a Covid-19 drive through.

Additionally, by removing the colour some buildings, such as Complexe Desjardins, are hardly recognizable as the façade fades into the same shade as the evening sky and disappears. When distractions are removed other things become more apparent, such as the contrast between spaces and patterns.

Complexe Desjardins on Rue Sainte-Catherine.

Light can be stationary, or it can move like the headlights on a car or the installation on top of Place Ville Marie. Long exposure photography is interesting because it is able to capture the remnants of what has already changed. Light trails obstruct the image, even though the object might have only been there for a split second. It can be used to measure the density of movement or stillness during the photo by studying the opacity and blurriness of the subject.

Looking down McGill College from Rue Sherbrooke.

Simple manipulations of the camera allows you to defamiliarize familiar locations and see through new eyes.

PHOTOGRAPHY | PROJECTS