Centre d’art de Kamouraska, a memorable residency
A chilling stay in Kamouraska
My creative residency at the Centre d'art de Kamouraska scheduled for January had to be postponed twice because of the particularly intense cold this winter. At the beginning of the month, my husband, my daughters and I finally set off to the beautiful Lower St. Lawrence region to capture the basic photographs for a new series of images entitled Northen Crossing. This project focuses on the early years of adolescence, and more particularly on the turbulence that shakes the young woman in the making. In order to accentuate the ambiguous tension of this disturbing passage, I have chosen a winter setting for all the works.
I knew that the shooting sessions would be more challenging than usual for my models (my daughters Zoé and Emma). But I didn't expect it to be so cold again in early March. With the wind from the river blowing constantly, the temperatures ranged from -20 to -25°C. It took a lot of coordination between my awesome partner/assistant Jean-Louis, the girls and myself to manage to work without getting frostbite!
Below is a little keepsake video made by Zoe with her iPad that shows the bravery of my EX-TRA-OR-DI-NA-RY models!
Kamouraska, take II
Last week, the whole family went back to Kamouraska to finish my residency and shoot the more complex images that had been impossible to stage during our first stay because of the intense cold. When we arrived in the region, we were amazed to see how much the landscape had changed. Almost no snow in the fields, the wind had blown everything away!
This time, my challenge was to find vistas that still gave enough of a winter feel. We found the most snow along the river, but venturing onto the ice was out of the question as it had become far too dangerous.
Despite these challenges, the light was fabulous and with the help of my husband and daughters, I was able to capture the compositions I had in mind. For a glimpse of the images I will be refining over the next few months, I offer you this second video of Zoé.