In close collaboration with L’Itinéraire, a Montreal organization that supports people who are socially and economically vulnerable, at risk of homelessness, or struggling with addiction or mental health problems, the Museum organized a special project: over a ten-day period, six individuals who work as vendors of L’Itinéraire, the organization’s magazine, participated in a series of workshops on street photography led by artist-mediator Bertrand Carrière. For several of the participants, this was their first real chance to experiment with photography. The images they produced reflect their unique views of Montreal’s streets.

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The Museum’s exhibition Pounding the Pavement: Montreal Street Photography, explores the history of street photography in Montreal. The initiative highlights the art of capturing city life, but also the institution’s commitment to social inclusion.

Pounding the Pavement: Montreal Street Photography allows rarely heard voices to add a new dimension to the history of Montreal as it’s generally told. For Zoë Tousignant, curator of the Museum’s Photography collection, this plurality of visions is vital. “As I see it, street photography is simply the impulse to use the medium to picture the urban experience. By opting for a broad definition, we can expand the field of photographic history.”

The exhibition thus features some works that are not part of the Museum’s collection, including images taken by Stephanie Colvey, co-founder of the art centre Dazibao, and by feminists Marik Boudreau and Suzanne Girard, who among other subjects immortalized Montreal’s Chinatown in the late 1970s. “The starting point was the Museum’s own collection,” explains the curator. “It encompasses a wide range of voices, but there were a few gaps that needed to be filled.”

The bustling city centre was much favoured by photographers working during the last three decades of the 20th century. But although the exhibition does not cover all of Montreal’s various sectors, some of the works on view take us outside the downtown core. Among these are Normand Rajotte’s photographs of children, made during the 1970s in the working-class Centre-Sud neighbourhood, which reveal the everyday realities of these young members of society and document the last vestiges of an era when minors were allowed to roam urban streets without parental supervision.

The Museum is well aware that history is also shaped by the contributions of those least often heard. This was the idea behind a series of workshops on street photography, conceived in collaboration with Groupe communautaire L’Itinéraire.

And so, six eager magazine vendors set off to roam the city armed with cameras and the precious advice of photographer and retired teacher Bertrand Carrière. Invited by the Museum to lead the workshops, this street photography enthusiast was struck during the encounter by “the humour and sensitivity of people whose artistic vision is untainted and honest.” The view these individuals have of the street is authentic, since they have experienced it largely in a context of homelessness.

“I’ve been doing photojournalism for L’Itinéraire for a few years now.  And I tell you, photojournalism has to be the best job in the world! Just taking off without a plan, not knowing what you’ll find… Anyway, back to the subject! One of my assignments, in 2024, was to document a street photography project organized by the McCord Museum in collaboration with the Groupe L’Itinéraire. Six of their magazine vendors were invited to take part in a project related to the exhibition Pounding the Pavement.

Although I was responsible for photographing the workshops given by Bertrand Carrière, I learned a lot myself, especially about image composition. The workshops inspired me to wander the streets of Montreal in search of great subjects.

The participants’ mission was to criss-cross the city taking beautiful pictures. With the camera on automatic, of course! Photography isn’t just about settings, it’s also a question of how you see things.

They took some fantastic photos – Manon took 800! Better too many than not enough! It was great to see them in action with their cameras – a small model, but a very good one! One of the participants, Maxime, took photographs at night. I admire his courage, because it’s a technically complex exercise. Patrick, another member of the group, was absolutely spellbound, like a kid in front of a huge chocolate cake!

For myself, I was honoured to contribute towards the project; it’s pretty incredible for a magazine vendor to have their work exhibited in a famous museum!”

– Gabriel Lavoie, photographer for L’Itinéraire

“I’m interested in photography and video, and that’s why I signed up for the McCord’s photography project. The experience went way beyond my expectations, I learned so many things, it’s given me the taste to continue, to improve, to go further.”

– Patrick Plamondon, vendor at the Pie-IX metro

“In street photography, a simple puddle can become a beautiful picture.”

– Agathe Melançon, vendor at the Lionel-Groulx metro