Michel Campeau (2005)

Between city and country lies the zone: the suburb, the urban wasteland, or the strip, where signs of modern culture can be displayed, discarded, or decayed. These artists excavate the zone. Phil Bergerson concentrates on advertising, shop windows, and other forms of display. Michel Campeau visits an industrial wrecking yard where machines are strewn like dead soldiers across the field. Glenn Sloggett points his camera at derelict buildings and abandoned buildings in the outskirts of Victoria, Australia.

Michel Campeau explores the subjective, narrative, and ontological aspects of photography. In 1994 he received the Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Prize (Hokkaido, Japan). A retrospective of his work (1971−96), Michel Campeau: Eloquent Images, was organized by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. Among his publications are two monographs, Les tremblements du coeur (1988) and Éclipses et Labyrinthes (1993). A new body of work, Humus, was premiered in the collective exhibition La Méthode et l’extase: Richard Baillargeon, Bertrand Carrière, Michel Campeau (touring 2001−3). A solo exhibition, Arborescences. Beauté et paradoxes, was presented at Plein Sud, Centre d’art actuel (Longueuil, Quebec), in 2004.