Michelle Reid: For the readers who haven’t picked up a copy of Sad Mag #6 yet, who is Rob Fougere?
Rob Fougere: I’m a photographer, artist and archivist.
MR: What’s it like seeing yourself on the cover of a magazine?
RF: The Sad magazine cover was actually the second time I’ve been photographed for my moustache. The first was in New York magazine a few years ago on a trip. Sad was cool because it has national distribution, so I had friends in Toronto call me to tell me that they saw it.
MR: How did you get started as a photographer?
RF: I’ve enjoyed taking pictures always, and used to walk around with a digital point-and-shoot camera taking movies of the strange things I’d see going about my day-to-day. It wasn’t until I discovered the magic of the darkroom that photography took over my thought processes.
MR: What is the best photograph you have ever found?
RF: That’s a very tough question. I’ve got some really great found negatives and it’s honestly too hard to choose or describe them in words. The one photo that I’ll always hang on my wall no matter where I live is a shot of my father from when he was 17 or 18 in a suit and tie with his hair combed over his ears. It’s a great studio shot and in the perfect brown cardboard frame with gold trim.
MR: Tell us about your upcoming show, Parading Without a Permit. How did you curate the selected images? How long did you spend collecting them?
RF: I’m always really happy anytime that I can have my photos seen outside of the digital realm. My practice as a whole explores the photograph as cultural artifact and aesthetic object. For this show I wanted to put together a set of images that captured a spirit of beauty and self-reliance. It includes some of my best shots from the last three years of shooting and some found negatives to fill in the gaps and give them some context in terms of recent history and the nature of people, like “Some things don’t change!”.
MR: What’s the advantage of having an exhibition at Collage Collage versus a mainstream gallery space?
RF: Collage Collage will let me! When I start showing at bigger galleries, I want to make sure I’m ready and that the shows are really good, and right now I still have too much to learn! The downside to Collage Collage is that I have to make the show age appropriate, since it’s a kid’s art shop.
MR: What local photographers do you admire?
RF: Scott Pommier and Bentley Wilks take great photos, both in terms of subject matter and style.
MR: Has anyone ever contacted you about a found negative with its origin story?
RF: Nope, although it’s going to be the first time most of the found photos my Collage Collage show are seen in public… for the first time in fifty-years anyways.
MR: What are you working on now?
RF: June is a busy month! Sarah Holtom and I are showing a different set of work at Boucherat Gallery in Victoria the day after Parading Without a Permit opens. Sarah has painted some amazing oil-on-wood portraits in black-and-white to complement my vintage pin-ups. We’re both also happy to be taking part in the Cheaper Show again this year. I’ve also started a framing business called PlainWoodFrames.com that is the official framing shop of the Cheaper Show, so I expect to be very busy with that in the next few weeks!
Parading Without a Permit
Collage Collage (621 Kingsway)
June 9th, 7:00PM – 9:00PM
RSVP on Facebook
