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News ........................................................................ > "Picture yourself supporting Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal!" Our fund-raising campaign continues. Click here to donate. > The 12th presentation of Le Mois de la Photo à Montreal will be held from September 8 to October 9, 2011 around the theme Lucidity. Inward Views.
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Mandate
To promote diverse tendencies in photography and the image in general;
To produce a biennale and other activities designed to question issues related to photography and contemporary imagery;
To stimulate research by artists, exhibition curators, and other specialists of the image in a context of exchange and collaboration;
To offer the general public an opportunity to interpret developments in photography and the image in contemporary culture;
To produce, edit and distribute printed, televised, or digitalized material with the intent to have photography and the contemporary image better understood by a general public.
A Brief History
The first presentation of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal was organized by VOX centre de diffusion de la photographie in 1989 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the invention of photography. This original event was a catalyst, creating a gathering place, unprecedented in the Montreal and Canadian artistic community, and served as an inspiration for transforming Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal into a biennale.
Since its first presentation, Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal has pursued its goal of presenting the finest in local and international contemporary photography. Over the years, the exhibition programming of each presentation has demonstrated the organization's ability of producing events that are artistically, intellectually and academically rigorous while still accessible to a large and diverse public.
In September 2002, Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal became an autonomous organization and the change in administration was accompanied by a shift in the artistic direction of the event. For each presentation a new guest curator is appointed to reflect upon and explore a specific theme. All the exhibitions, the publication, and the colloquium are organized around this theme. This new artistic formula proved itself successful for the last four events. Over time Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal has become an important focal point within the field of contemporary photography and enjoys an excellent international reputation in its discipline.
To name just a few recent awards and special mentions, in 2009 Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal was very proud to have received the Imperial Tobacco Canada Foundation’s inaugural Arts Achievement Award for the organization’s important impact on the art of photography over the years. In an article entitled “The World’s Best Photo Festivals” published in Photo District News Magazine in autumn 2007, Simon Bainbridge (the editor of The British Journal of Photography) situated Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal among the ten best in the world. And our 2003 publication NOW. Images of Present Time, edited by guest curator Vincent Lavoie, won the coveted Grafika award.
