The Station Point

Taken over the past three decades throughout Europe and North America, these photographs are of age-old landscapes; historical treasures of architecture nestled in the countryside and rusting industrial sites reclaimed by nature. Robert Bourdeau is deeply interested in how certain structures lose their identity and take on other feelings and ambiguities, and at other times become guardians or sentinels of physical and emotional space. He is also fascinated by the dark mysticism of medieval architecture and by brooding landscapes, the exactness of his photography disclosing the hidden geometry of nature. Most of his photographs are contact printed, either from an 11-by-14-inch or an 8-by-10-inch negative, a method that allows for a minimal loss of definition in reproduction.

The Station Point is the first comprehensive survey of Robert Bourdeau’s photographic career and a celebration of his body of work; truly a Canadian national treasure.

Robert Bourdeau has exhibited internationally since 1967. His work is in the collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; the Museum of Contemporary Art and The Renaissance Society, Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the National Gallery of Canada, and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa.

Ann Thomas is curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Canada. She has organized numerous exhibitions and installations in this capacity and is the author of several catalogs and publications.

William Ewing, director of the Musée de l’Elysée, is a well-known curator and writer on photography. His exhibitions have been shown at many museums in America and Europe.

Sophie Hackett is the assistant curator of photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario and adjunct faculty in Ryerson University’s masters program in photographic preservation and collections management.