Julie Druker | Jan 13, 2016


Those not able to travel to far-flung, sunnier climes this winter might want to take a quick trip to the MERA (McDonald's Corners/Elphin Recreation and Arts ) school house in McDonalds Corners to take in a show of photographs by Abigail Gossage titled "Memories of Mexico 1958".

Gossage, who lives in Ottawa and has a summer house in the area, has been taking photographs since she was a young child at summer camp, first with an old Teco camera. This show harkens back to photographs Gossage took in 1958 as an 18-year-old when she joined her mother on a trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Since then Gossage became a professional photographer and has been working alongside three other female photographers, who together, eight years ago formed the collective Studio 255.

Gossage, who also studied for years and recently graduated from the School of Photographic Arts Ottawa (SPAO), credits her current art curator and mentor Michael Tardioli, the director of SPAO, who encouraged her to take a second look at these early black and white photographs. Back in 1958, she didn't recognize them as particularly special. “Back then, I didn't think that these negatives were worth anything until my daughter and I started going through them and I made a small book of prints. I took them to Michael who said, ‘You have a show here.’”

Since their rediscovery Gossage has realized that even at the tender age of 18, she “had a good eye. “ The photographs were taken on a Yashica Mat camera that produces high quality 2.5 inch square negatives, which is partially what gives these images their pleasing clarity and crispness. However as a young photographer, Gossage also had the ability to intuitively hone in on the elements of formal composition without necessarily being able to articulate them. “Back then I was unaware of rules of composition and what's interesting is that now, I think that if I were put into the these same situations again, I would take the same exact same pictures. My eye, I think, has stayed the same and a lot of these photographs still really appeal to me.”

When asked to explain her style, Gossage said, “I wander and I react. I am not the kind of photographer who has specific projects in mind beforehand. Back then and still now I like to wander and discover the art in what I am seeing as I view it right then and there.”

As an example of this, one photograph in the show titled “Movie Extras”, was a scene Gossage came upon by accident where cast members were taking a break while shooting a film on the street. The scene is both relaxed yet somehow unnatural. An extra in fancy attire looks bored with his hand in pocket while the soldiers on horseback seem tense while waiting for the camera to roll. Similarly, her night time market scenes have a certain intimacy and directness, and their soft focused lighting makes them seem like immaculately designed stage sets, with their multiple layers of objects and dense amount of detail. Another photograph shows two seemingly decapitated ceramic clowns (which Gossage thinks were perhaps piñatas), sitting on stone stairs. The effect is other-worldly, and the viewer wonders what the particular significance of these heads may have been. The piece perhaps demonstrates how when certain customs and cultures of other places are taken out of context the result can be eerie and strange.

Composition comes easily to Gossage, who said that these pictures were not cropped but were printed as is, from the original negatives, making them truthful to what her young eye saw. The photographs are all printed in the same square format on 20” by 20” cotton rag paper, which makes the show hang together nicely as a unit though the subject matter is diverse.

The show attracted many locals, some of whom have visited Mexico, and Gossage easily engaged with them in conversations about the changes that have taken place in San Miguel since her first visit there. “It is now a lot more busy, full of cars and so many more tourists but behind all of that, the buildings and the scenery have not changed.” Gossage is currently working on a show that will open on March 17 at the Trinity Gallery at the Shenkman Centre in Ottawa. The working title for the show is “Disused Spaces” and the photographs will include photographs of abandoned commercial manufacturing sites no longer in use. The show will include photographs taken at the Howard Smith Paper Mill in Beauharnois, Quebec, Domtar in Gatineau, and the Babcock factory in St. Henri, Montreal. To see more work by this artist visit her website abigailgossage.ca

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