Neighbourhood bond develops over slow photography

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This article was published 28/11/2024 (659 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s newest public art piece took more than two years to develop — thankfully, the artists involved are well-versed in slow photography.

Located in the West End, Gathering Light: Capturing Community is a trio of murals made from photos taken by neighbourhood residents with guidance from local visual artist Sarah Crawley. The project was funded by the Winnipeg Arts Council’s WITH ART program, which pairs professional artists with community groups to make public artwork.

In 2022, Crawley was matched with the South Valour Residents Association — a grassroots neighbourhood group founded four years ago to foster community among residents living between Portage and Ellice avenues and within several blocks of Valour Road.

Before a single photograph was taken, the artist spent six months learning and listening.

“The idea is not for an artist to just parachute into a community and tell the community what we should make work about,” says Crawley, who previously completed another WITH ART project with members of Winnipeg’s Eritrean community.

“It’s about understanding what the community’s concerns are and the way the community functions, so together you can develop a project that’s going to resonate.”

The main goal of Gathering Light was to improve perceptions of neighbourhood safety — a concern sussed out by the residents association via community surveys.

“Top priorities were building community connections, creating a greener community and, of course, community safety,” says Stacy Cardigan Smith, the association’s outgoing board chair.

Since 2020, the organization has hosted garbage cleanups and treasure hunts, planted dozens of trees and partnered with researchers at the University of Winnipeg to roll out evidenced-based community safety initiatives.

Communal art programming can play a big role in the latter.

“A big part of (safety) is preventative work like getting to know each other — it sounds pretty simple, but it’s pretty effective. This was a really creative way to get to know our neighbours,” says Jess Klassen, a member of the mural project’s steering committee.

By participating in art workshops and photo walks, Klassen, who has lived in the area for four years, has become familiar with other community members she may not have met otherwise.

Gathering Light includes two large patchwork photo collages installed on the north exterior wall of Valour Community Centre’s Isaac Brock site.

Another small plaque made from cyanotype prints — a camera-less photography technique that involves laying objects on photo paper — of neighbourhood foliage will be located near the Omand’s Creek footbridge between Denson Place and Empress Street.

Crawley led multiple printing workshops, photo tours and camera-making sessions at the community centre and throughout the South Valour catchment area.

Participants used pinhole cameras to capture family portraits and local landmarks. Pinhole cameras are simple analogue devices made from light-proof containers loaded with light-sensitive paper or film. A tiny pinprick hole acts as the camera’s lens, exposing the material to light and creating a negative image.

“You can take any object that can be made light-tight; I like to use cookie tins,” says Crawley, whose art practice centres around experimental photography techniques.

She and Klassen and several volunteers also built and distributed 200 mini-cameras made from discarded film canisters to collect solargraphs — long-exposure images of the sun’s path through the sky.

Unlike the immediacy of digital photography, pinhole cameras can take several minutes or, in the case of solargraphy, several months to create an image. The process was equal parts meditative and joy-inducing.

“We were giggling because we would have looked so silly to people walking by,” Klassen says of using tape-covered tins and canisters to take minutes-long selfies with her family.

During photo outings, Crawley and the participants were often questioned by curious passersby.

“There was so much engagement; it was really lovely,” she says.

The project resulted in more than 300 usable images.

Crawley spent months developing film in her darkroom and scanning the photos onto her computer to assemble the plaque and murals, which are meant to look like a patchwork quilt.

Picking which images to include was a nerve-racking process.

“There is a whole community of people that I wanted to be happy with the results,” says Crawley, adding all of the participants received digital copies of their own photos.

For Klassen, whose family photos are featured in the murals, the process was as satisfying as the end result.

“It feels very personal, like we are part of this community. We got to talk about art with our neighbours and make art together and now it’s on the outside of this building where our kids go to daycare and play in the park,” she says.

There will be a mural unveiling event at Valour Community Centre (715 Telfer St. N.) on Sunday at 3 p.m. with free hot cocoa and family-friendly activities.

“I’m so excited for community members to come out and see the work they had a hand in making,” Cardigan Smith says. “We had tons of families, kids, individuals come out to do this work and it really did build community.”

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com