This exhibition is part of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival

Opening Reception & Artist Talk: Thursday May 9th 6:30-8:30pm

Exhibition Statement:

Part truth and part wry joke, Haitians often refer to their capital as “the Republic of Port-au-Prince”. The city is home to almost 50% of the country’s population, and strikingly different from the rest of the largely rural nation.

All cities are rife with contradictions, have their rich and poor, the sacred and the profane, the beautiful and the un-beautiful. In Port-au-Prince, these opposites overlap and co-exist almost everywhere, everyday. The essence of this photographic exploration lies in this continual mingling of contradictions.

This project covers the city from 2005 to 2017, beginning before the earthquake, pivots on the spectacular nature of that tragedy, and follows through halting reconstruction to the Karnaval celebrations of 2017. Many of the locations were photographed multiple times over the years, the architecture of destruction and the destruction of architecture a recurring theme. Despite their tragedies, the people of Haiti retain their dignity through culture, art, humour and self-composure.