EXHIBITION
2021
SUR LES SENTIERS DE ROBERT W. REFORD
Une promenade argentique
Equipped with his three Rolleiflex cameras from the 1960s, Pierre Fauteux roved Reford Gardens following in the footsteps of Robert W. Reford. The first “artist in residence” to focus his gaze on the gardens over a century ago, Reford was also a pioneer of photography in Canada.
In homage to Elsie Reford’s husband, Pierre Fauteux embraced the challenge of capturing this colourful floral paradise on black and white film, with a more sculptural than painterly eye. Through his lens, the garden vistas transmute from the descriptive to the evocative with plays of depth and texture, at times revealing forms that are more animal than vegetal.
By ordering photo series sequentially as well, he creates immersive 2D panoramas that are almost tangible. Combining analogue and digital techniques, the large format prints are at once an ode to photography, to light and to the majesty of the gardens.
AT REFORD GARDENS
FROM JUNE TO OCTOBER 2021
In addition to the works on display, a 108-page book presents the entire photographic walk.
The bilingual book Walking the Paths of Robert W. Reford
tells the story of the gardens in three voices.
In collaboration with Alexander Reford, Director, and
Patricia Gallant, horticulturist at Reford Gardens.
Large format art book, printed in duotone.
PHOTO BOOK
The anthropologist, museographer and photographer
Pierre Fauteux discovered Les Jardins de Métis, in Gaspésie, a few years ago when his company, Umanium, renewed the permanent exhibition of the
Villa Estevan. At the same time, he discovered the work of Robert W. Reford, the husband of Elsie Reford, the founder of the gardens, who was a businessman with a passion
for photography. “I had access to the archives of Robert
and I saw all his talent that was hidden in the boxes,”
he explains.
