All the images in Emmanuelle Léonard’s installation are chiseled from unique points of view, for the artist invited workers to photograph their own work spaces at a moment when they were empty of all human presence. The images thus show the environments of some fifty workers with various crafts and occupations. In their documentary vocation, the images present a stoppage in work time in such a way as to permit us to observe more attentively these often stunning sites. The time for productivity is thus interrupted in favour of the recording of individualized gazes. We must thus consider these images to be portraits of regards that transform the present documented into real presences in the world. This means that to truly grasp a social reality is not simply a case of isolating it for an instant, circumscribing a space, but of understanding the actual slipping of the subject into its daily time and space. This documentary strategy permitted Emmanuelle Léonard to insert a bit of slowness into the daily life of these workers by encouraging them to divert their work time for a close look at their environment.

Emmanuelle Léonard lives and works in Montreal. In 1997, she received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, with a specialization in photography, from Concordia University. Her works have been featured in fifteen solo and group shows at galleries and artist-run centres in Quebec and Canada, including De fougue et de passion at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Her recent work, launched at the most recent edition of Mois de la Photo à Montréal, continues her reflection on the representation of social space, a concern at the core of her photographic practice.