Review of street photography exhibit
The McCord-Stewart museum has an exhibit on called Battre le pavé/Pounding the pavement which is worth a look. They gathered selections of Montreal street photography from many photographers. Some of the sets are displayed on walls, some as slide shows in side rooms. There’s one set of stereograms from the 19th century, but most of the work is more recent.
The focus is downtown, mostly from the 1980s onward. Some images were quite recent and I noticed a few shots in which the Hot Star restaurant is in the background, which burned down last month.
There’s also a wall where articles about the Aubry v. Éditions Vice-Versa case are pasted up, but no further information about the current legal status of public photography in Quebec.
One series of short videos has photographers talking to the video camera about their inspiration and approaches: they varied from getting very chummy with street photography subjects, to one man who quite arrogantly says he takes a photo and keeps moving without getting into any discussions. So I wondered about the legal status of his photos in the exhibit.
It was a shift of perceptions to come out onto the street afterwards, always an interesting moment.
Blork 10:01 on 2025-08-14 Permalink
Interestingly, the actual photograph from the Aubry v. Éditions Vice-Versa case is on display.
Orr 17:00 on 2025-08-15 Permalink
Perhaps the H.John commentator can provide some of his insight on the current legal status of public photography? I would be very interested to learn more about this.
On the western exterior wall of the The McCord-Stewart museum building is one of the most remarkable public art sculptures I’ve seen anywhere in Montreal, Pierre Granche’s Totem Urbaine / histoire en dentilles. You can also see it on the Art Public Montreal website, which is an excellent resource for enjoying Montreal’s very large public art collection.