Photography is a personal process
Featuring Alice Cloutier-Lachance Words by Nastasia Khmelnitski
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Alice Cloutier-Lachance is a visual artist from Montreal, Canada. She gained her Bachelor’s degree in Photography from Concordia University. Her main medium to create stories is large and medium format cameras, which provide her with the required slowness of the process to create powerful images. Alice combines staged and documentary approach to research the intrinsic connection of humans to nature.
With her recent ongoing project, Devenir ce que l’on voit, Alice creates a timeless, silent story of people she encounters and learns about in the Bas-Saint-Laurent during her summer stay in the area. Through monochromatic black-and-white imagery, the feeling transmitted is of life, the evergoing flow that constantly exists and allows for feelings, connections, and occurrences to pass by and sometimes linger for longer periods.
In this conversation, we speak with Alice about her decision to pursue photography during her years living in Australia, which she describes in the following manner, “I started dreaming through scenes that I saw and through the photos I took. I’ve always loved art and have always been interested in people and their stories, and photography seemed like the perfect medium to mix both.” We discuss her BA, which added a deep layer to her processes, creating the narrative and reasoning for the unfolding projects. In our dialogue, Alice explains that observation of people and their interactions with each other and their environment is what catches her curiosity to make images and tell their stories.
‘The slowness of large-format photography made my process more personal and more organic and made the act of photographing more intimate. I also think that the sharpness of large-format photos is unbeatable.’
My Story
Hi Alice, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you about your work. Medium and large formats are your choice in telling the story and designing the narratives. Photography and work in the darkroom were always part of your life, stemming from your father's interest in this. What is this precise moment that brought you to photography and choosing the perfect medium to work with?
Photography has always been a part of my life, with my father having a darkroom in our home basement. However, it wasn’t until I was 18 years old and went travelling to South America that I picked up a camera myself. I realized photography was an excuse to talk to people and to be curious. It made me look at things differently and made me more aware of my surroundings. I started dreaming through scenes that I saw and through the photos I took. I’ve always loved art and have always been interested in people and their stories, and photography seemed like the perfect medium to mix both.
I have always shot film, but it wasn’t until my second year of university, when I took a Large Format class, I fell in love with it. The slowness of large-format photography made my process more personal and more organic and made the act of photographing more intimate. I also think that the sharpness of large-format photos is unbeatable.
‘Photography is a deeply personal process, almost like introspection or writing in a diary. To explain your work, to explain why you decided to work on a certain subject is a hard thing to do when you are in the middle of creating it and don’t have a lot of distance from it.’
Concordia University
You recently finished your studies toward the Bachelor's degree in Photography and Print Media at Concordia University, Montreal. While there’s a conversation unfolding today on whether classical studies are beneficial, most photographers choose to enroll in universities and expand their knowledge. In what way have lecturers and professors helped you shape your niche of choice and direction?
When I first started my BFA, I had a hard time talking about my work. Photography is a deeply personal process, almost like introspection or writing in a diary. To explain your work, to explain why you decided to work on a certain subject is a hard thing to do when you are in the middle of creating it and don’t have a lot of distance from it. Emotions and states of mind take time to understand. Photography is a process and a way of asking questions. I don’t always have the answers right away. University taught me to create a language around my work, to have a basis on which I can build a speech. Even if words don’t always answer all the questions, they can definitely elevate your images and bring an important dimension to them.
I’ve learned so much at university, and I am glad I did my BFA. But I also found it extremely difficult working with deadlines. I think that finding your voice through photography and making strong work takes time. I am now looking forward to taking time to make work. As I said earlier, photography is a personal process; creating images and understanding them takes time.
‘I witness moments, I witness humans, I take photographs, and I build a narrative with the images.’
Silence as Atmosphere
The feeling that arises when I view your work is of deep silence and stillness, which is, in a way, also very vocal and loud. The narrative is built of a scene caught in a moment, the moment which might be a very important one, preceded or followed by a significant occurrence (an act or personal experience). What is your understanding of the moment you decide to capture and make an image of? What did you learn from your practice of photography in terms of creating the right moment/frame/feeling?
The experience of taking a photograph always varies. Sometimes I have an idea of a moment I want to create and capture to communicate a certain feeling. Other times, I walk around, meet people, talk to them, and take their portraits. Even though both ways of shooting are completely different, I always react to what happens in front of me. I look at how people interact with each other, how they interact with their environments. More often than not, the staged moment I had imagined changes and becomes something different, or the person I had placed for a portrait moves and looks out in a different direction, and that becomes the final image. I think that’s what makes the beauty of this process. It’s staged, but also not really. It’s more of an observation, and the photograph is the reaction. I witness moments, I witness humans, I take photographs, and I build a narrative with the images. In my life, I look out for connections, for simplicity, and for closeness with nature. I think that the moments I decide to capture and the narratives I construct with my photographs communicate the values around which I wish to build my life.
‘When I try to photograph a connection between the land and a human, or between a group of people and their surrounding environments, it comes from core values in my own personal life.’
Australia
Before you decided to study BFA, you traveled to Australia and lived there for four years. What impact did the trip to Australia have on you as a person or professional? Could you tell about a meaningful encounter or understanding during your stay in this country?
Before living in Australia, I had always lived in a city and was used to a way of living that was fast. If we wanted to be in nature, we had to leave our home and go to the countryside to spend time outside. In Australia, I lived next to the ocean. This proximity to nature brought a sense of deep connection in my life as well as a simplicity that was different from what I was used to in the city. I was always in the sea, always outside. Time felt different, a simplicity that brought a kind of slowness and connection to my everyday life. It sounds super cliché to say, but it’s true.
This simplicity, this proximity to nature, and this feeling of connection is something I learned while living in Australia. These values and interests can be found in photographs. When I try to photograph a connection between the land and a human, or between a group of people and their surrounding environments, it comes from core values in my own personal life. And most of this, I learned in Australia.
‘I am inspired by people, different stories, and different ways of living. And the process of photographing, discovering, and questioning is building the person I am now.’
Projet En Cours
Let’s discuss the ongoing project you present on the website that is done in monochromatic black and white and was partially presented in Galerie VAV. The most prominent theme you touch on is the connection between humans and natural elements. The feeling is of slowing down time, enabling the moment to be fully experienced and thought about. What did you learn from working on this project, and what will be your next steps in developing it further?
Last summer, I worked in a restaurant in a small village in Quebec and went out shooting every time I had a few days off. I drove around, discovered new places, met many people, and heard stories. I think I did this because I was trying to find answers, to understand how I wanted to live my life and where I wanted to live. One day, I was on the Côte-Nord, and I crossed paths with a man. I had been walking on a beach for a while, but it was completely empty because it had been raining. Without saying hi or any introduction, he told me, "Young lady, can I tell you something? To be is to become what you see."
This moment, as random as it was, really stayed with me because it made sense. I had been living through encounters, discovering new places, hearing stories, and meeting people. I wanted to see it all; photographing was a way to include myself in these different lives, to become a small part of bigger stories. I am inspired by people, different stories, and different ways of living. And the process of photographing, discovering, and questioning is building the person I am now. This summer, I will be living in a different village than last year, but with the same intention in mind. Photography is my driving tool to go out and be curious, to learn about others, and to learn about myself.
A Sneak Peek
What project/s are you currently working on, and what should we expect next in terms of themes you’re developing?
After returning to Montreal in September last year, I dedicated my time to working on the photographs I captured during the summer of 2022. As I was completing my BFA, my opportunities to leave the city to take photos were limited. However, in a few weeks, I will be moving out of my Montreal apartment to live on the Côte-Nord for the summer. I am enthusiastic about the prospect of discovering new places and capturing new stories. I am unsure where I will go once those few months are over, but all of the possibilities are thrilling.
New beginnings are scary but also so exciting. I think that the best things in life are often scary. I feel like I will finally be living closer to the values I’ve communicated in my photographs throughout the last years. Because photography is a personal process for me, I am curious to see how these changes in my personal life will impact my photographic work.
The work I am planning on producing in the next months will continue to be anchored in traditional portraiture, in the documentary tradition as well as the creation of tableaux vivants, with a focus on themes of human connection to the land, stillness, simplicity, and storytelling. Ultimately, I plan to present this body of work in a solo exhibition in the spring of 2024.
