Hello! I’m Avard Woolaver.
I’ve been taking photos for over four decades, and after stints in Toronto and Nagoya, Japan, now live in Nova Scotia. I do social landscape photography and am interested in New Topographics—the human altered landscape–recording how human behavior and activity has affected the world. I also look for whimsical scenes and elements of surrealism found in everyday life. My work is firmly planted in the documentary tradition, getting photos through observation rather than through set-up and image manipulation. Photography keeps me in touch with the changing seasons, and the passage of time. My images are intertwined with childhood memories and locations around Hants County, Nova Scotia.
In my younger days, besides studying photography at Toronto Metropolitan University, I worked for a time doing freelance jobs. And, inspired by photographers such as Robert Frank and Lee Friedlander, I walked the streets looking for interesting scenes, viewing the city with country eyes. Around then my friend Bill Knetsch and I established New Image Studio and Gallery in Toronto West Junction, frequently exhibiting the work of TMU teachers and students.
I’ve been scanning an archive covering thirty years, which has led to five Toronto books: Toronto Flashback (1980-1986) ; No Money Down – Toronto (1980-1986); Toronto Days; Toronto in Colour: the 1980s; and now, Toronto Hi-Fi. Other books: Wish You Were Here, and Found Fields. All are for sale at Blurb Books.
In March, 2018 I had an exhibition at Gallery 310, Toronto Metropolitan University IMA. Curated by Don Snyder and Pierre Tremblay, “Toronto Days” included photos from the first three Toronto books. Shawn Micallef writes, “What we forget is the slow overlap of time. Woolaver’s photos have a lot of 1970s in them: the clothes people wore; the cars on the street; and the general sensibility of the place. Looking at them had me thinking about our 2018 city and what remnants from the 2000s, the 1990s, or earlier are still around today. It’s hard to see the overlap of time when you’re under and in them, but looking back, as the Toronto Days exhibition lets us do, those layers become apparent.”
Looking at photos I took long ago, it seems clear to me now that I was working with very little idea of what would seem significant later on and what would lose its importance over time. This holds true not just for the elements of the shots that have objectively gained or lost meaning over time — like landmarks, famous people, and so forth — but I also think that when I was younger, there was superficiality in some of my work. I was often wowed by graphic elements but somehow didn’t consider a photo’s richer meaning. These days I have a more mindful approach.
In November 2021, I had two photographs in a group exhibition in Paris, France. (The show, “Another Look at Man-Altered Landscape,” held at Galerie Andre et Catherine Hug, also featured photographs by Edward Burtynsky, Eric Tabuchi, Elizabeth Bourne, Markus Lehr, and others.)
Flickr album – Toronto Flashback (1980 – 1986)
Flickr album – No Money Down – Toronto (1980-1986)
Flickr album – Toronto In Colour: the 1980s
Flickr album – Wish You Were Here
Publications:
Edge of Humanity Magazine – Toronto 1980s
C-Type Mag – Wish You Were Here
Japan Camera Hunter – visual interview
CBC TV interview for Our Toronto
All Cities Are Beautiful – Toronto in the 1980s
blogTO – A flashback to the gritty Toronto of the 1980s
Artnalism – Toronto in the ’80s
Goethe Institut – Four Versions of Citizenship
Urban Photo Mag – Lee Friedlander Inspired
Red Square Gallery – Lee Friedlander Inspired
Flickr / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
avardwoolaver@gmail.com