English version below.

Lu : Orest Semchishen : In Plain View / Voir clair par Martha Hanna et publié par le Musée canadien de la photographie contemporaine en 1988.

Orest Semchishen (1932- ) est avant tout radiologue et pourrait donc être considéré comme un photographe du dimanche. De 1968 à 1992, il parcourt ainsi d’abord le nord-est de l’Alberta où sont concentrées la majorité des églises ukrainiennes de la province (ses grands-parents sont des pionniers ukrainiens arrivés au Canada à la fin des années 1890), puis, au cours de ses vacances, le reste du pays afin de faire l’inventaire systématique de ces bâtiments.

Au début de cette période, en 1972, il suit également un cours à l’Université de l’Alberta puis une série d’ateliers donnés par Hubert Hohn, un américain ayant étudié et travaillé avec Ansel Adams et Minor White, et dont les caméras grands formats sont l’outil de prédilection. Délaissant les cadrages plus serrés, les images de Semchishen englobent alors peu à peu des paysages plus vastes et plus complexes desquels se dégage une puissante atmosphère et où chaque détail compte.

À une époque où il n’était pas encore question pour le gouvernement canadien de reconnaître l’emprisonnement injuste pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale de ses citoyens d’origine japonaise, Semchishen s’est également intéressé à la communauté bouddhiste du sud de l’Alberta. Et, avec le même immense respect, aux trappeurs du nord de la province, dont le mode de vie était de plus en plus menacé.

Comme l’écrit Hanna, Semchishen « was aware that what he was recording would soon be altered through the inevitable erosion of time ». Par contre, ses images « do not dwell on change but rather are about holding on to and valuing what is still vital » (p. 33). Aussi, plutôt que de se battre contre les éléments qu’il préférerait retirer du cadre, le photographe « shows us familiar scenes that a resident would see over and over again – a sight that is endearing in its familiarity. Not nostalgic nor sentimentally reminescent of the past but a vital, living tradition: the front of a house, a backyard, a garage, or places significant of the larger community: hotels, post offices, main streets of towns, and gas stations. Event when unpeopled, they are all about the inhabitants of the places and their everyday experience » (p. 36). Comme quoi il est possible de voir beaucoup et d’un autre œil même en ne disposant que d’une poignée de dimanches !

English version:

Sunday

Read: Orest Semchishen : In Plain View / Voir clair by Martha Hanna and published by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in 1988.

Orest Semchishen (1932-) is, first and foremost, a radiologist, and could therefore be considered a Sunday photographer. Yet, from 1968 to 1992, he travelled first to northeastern Alberta, where most of the province’s Ukrainian churches are located (his grandparents were Ukrainian pioneers who arrived in Canada in the late 1890s), and then, during his holidays, across the country to carry out a systematic inventory of these buildings.

At the beginning of this period, in 1972, he also attended a class at the University of Alberta and then a series of workshops given by Hubert Hohn, an American who had studied and worked with Ansel Adams and Minor White, and whose preferred tool was large format cameras. Moving away from tighter framing, Semchishen’s images gradually included larger and more complex landscapes from which a powerful atmosphere emerged and where every detail counted.

At a time when the Canadian government was not yet considering recognizing the unfair imprisonment of its Japanese citizens during the Second World War, Semchishen was also interested in the Buddhist community of southern Alberta. And, with the same immense respect, to the trappers in the northern part of the province, whose way of life was increasingly threatened.

As Hanna writes, Semchishen « was aware that what he was recording would soon be altered through the inevitable erosion of time ». However, his photographs « do not dwell on change but rather are about holding on to and valuing what is still vital » (p. 33). Also, rather than fighting against the elements he would prefer to remove from the frame, the photographer « shows us familiar scenes that a resident would see over and over again – a sight that is endearing in its familiarity. Not nostalgic nor sentimentally reminescent of the past but a vital, living tradition: the front of a house, a backyard, a garage, or places significant of the larger community: hotels, post offices, main streets of towns, and gas stations. Event when unpeopled, they are all about the inhabitants of the places and their everyday experience » (p. 36). This shows that it is possible to see a lot, and from a different perspective, even with a handful of Sundays!