Tony Fouhse Photograph Mechanicsville
Tony Fouhse
Authentic Photograph by Ottawa photographer Tony Fouhse. Measures 15.25 inches width x 11 inches height. Ttiled & dated at lower right of print: “Room, Mechanicsville, Ottawa, 1987”.
Unsigned. $325.
More than 40 years it’s been now, and Tony Fouhse still hasn’t tired of shooting. Fouhse is an editorial and commercial photographer. He also spends a lot of time and emotion photographing personal projects. He has been nominated 3 times for the National Magazine Awards (and won once). His personal projects have attracted international attention and been published around the world. As well, images from his personal work have been aquired by institutional collections including The National Photo Collection of Belgium (on permanent display), the Art Collection of Global Affairs, Canada and the Ottawa Art Gallery Collection. In 2010 he was awarded The Karsh Award for Photography. Every day Fouhse finds himself in a different situation. Different circumstances. No matter, he always throws himself into the experience. Photos come out of this process. Convincing. Vigorous. Keen. Uncanny.
MECHANICSVILLE
Towards the end of the 80’s I stumbled upon a small working class neighbourhood in Ottawa called Mechanicsville. It was pretty much a self-contained community. You could feel that it was a throw-back of some kind, a neighbourhood that you just knew was destined to be changed by progress, by time, by gentrification. I set about hanging out, getting to know the people who lived there, gaining access and, I thought, some insight. This was a new way of working for me, spending the time, embedding myself, going the same place over and over, rather than grabbing images, like I used to do, as I walked by. When I finished the project the work was exhibited at Gallery 101 in Ottawa. A lot of folks from Mechanicsville came to the opening and, let me tell you, they were not pleased. There were tears and recriminations. They though I had misrepresented their lives and their neighbourhood. Perhaps (probably) I did. I was rocked, their reaction made me think long and hard about my point of view, about my opinions, and about how photography is not a neutral medium. About this time I also got fired from my job, it would seem that I was no longer able to fit into the shapes and forms that society required. It was time for a rethink.
Tony Fouhse
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 – OFFICIAL OTTAWA, Ottawa Art Gallery Annex
2013 – LIVE THROUGH THIS, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa –
LIVE THROUGH THIS, ViewPoint Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia
2012 – ANGELENOS, La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa
2011 – USER 2010, La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa
2010 – I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I, Karsh Masson Gallery, Ottawa –
AMERICAN STATES, Exposure Gallery, Ottawa
USER, Pikto Gallery, Toronto (featured CONTACT exhibition) –
USER, La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa
2009 – APRIL + ERIK , Gallery La Petite Mort, Ottawa –
USER, IPS Gallery, Montreal 2008 –
BESIDE THE PASSAIC, La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa
2006 – THERE, Gallery 101, Ottawa
2004 – CALIFORNIA, Galerie La Bouchon, Paris