Art Photography

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Photo by Hugo Trottier

Hugo Trottier presents his latest series, Warriors. Warriors is a tribute to Caroline Néron, a local actress and Québécoise singer from Montreal. Caroline Néron has been featured in various local, national and international films including: L’invitation (1998), Ice Cold (2002) and 3 Saison (2009).

In 2004, Néron launched her own jewelery collection, Bijoux Caroline Néron, focused on creating modern warriors in urban princesses. Néron’s jewelery shows pull the audience into a world of unexpected sparkles and magic through her personal creations, comprised of various precious stones and luxurious diamonds.

Aside from her busy dual career as an entrepreneur and entertainer, Néron is environmentally conscious, committing to plant 14,000 trees in Quebec and has donated over $25,000 from profits generated from her beautiful and eye-grabbing jewelery line to support the Breast Cancer foundation.

Hugo hopes to portray this wonderfully talented and caring woman through his Warriors series by capturing the modern day woman warrior. Though these warriors’ may drizzle themselves in jewels, it is utmost important that they maintain their composer in the most dyer situations. A female fighter understands herself and is aware of her surroundings, knowing that is her best weapon in the 21st century, as she helps herself, while holding the hands of others.

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Until We See series By Hugo Trottier

This week’s Carte Blanche by Hugo Trottier is a provocative, mesmerizing series entitled, Until We See. Until We See features the laced-lined burlesque artists who participated in the 2010 Montreal Burlesque Festival this past September. His adapted versions and visions of these fearless burlesque artists was inspired by the Hope for Haiti soundtrack and more specifically Beyoncé Knowles’s wonderfully deep and uplifting song, Halo.

Throughout the series you will noticed the majority of the images are captured from a back view. We ask you to consider this idea: why are we always looking for beauty from the front? It seems we are always in search of beauty in face, we always question truth in the eyes, yet we never stop to appreciate what is in front of us until it is walking away. In this case, we want you not think of the concept of ‘someone walking away’, rather someone walking towards the beauty, towards the truth, towards another person or object that draws them closer to who they’re truly meant to be – even if it’s in the darkest night, they will stand tall.

Hugo wants us to recognize that though beauty may be beneath the skin, It is vividly seen when we bare our naked (almost naked for these women) bodies, when we expose our souls and spirits. Hugo’s images capture the truth of these artists spirits. Look closely at the poses, the attire and the attitudes that shine through each and everyone of these Gothic, black and white images. Notice the confidence these artists have. Notice the emphasis on creative angles and Hugo’s integration of his own personal artwork that accompanies them. Pay close attention to this series, can you see the Halos?

Click each image to see the slideshow.

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Hugo Trottier’s Postcards From the Edge Series

In the middle of the night many of us shut our eyes, lose our thoughts and let go of the day. In the middle of the night when many of us are sleeping, dreaming and talking in our sleep, there are artists crafting pieces together that will ultimately change our perspectives, open our eyes and stimulate our senses.

Forget The Box would like to introduce Hugo Trottier’s second series, Postcards from the Edge. The series is a visual representation of how there is still beauty amidst the destruction in our industrialized world. It is where beauty meets the beast. There is a common theme amongst the photos in this series. If you pay attention you will notice the supermodels, you will notice the destruction… but do you notice the umbrellas?

When we examine umbrellas closely they seem so simple, so innocent, so protective. And they are. They are the shields that hide us from the rain, the cold hard rain that comes down and washes away the sadness that fills our lives. But, in this series, the umbrellas do not protect the beauty; rather they are simply an allusion to the precautions we must take in life. We all want a protector or do we?

We have seen destruction in this lifetime. We have seen hurt, poverty, black, white and gray. We have seen the sun, the colours and hippies. But, do we truly see what happens when your protector meets the darkness and what the mind can create in the late or early hours of a midnight sky? Hugo’s collection portrays the innocence of life, the werewolf in your bed and the rays of light that are sometimes forgotten in this busy world.

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Hugo’s first series with FTB is the 35th anniversary show Cabaret Cléopatre Grand Spectacle: 35 years of travesty and was held April 24, 2010. Hugo was invited by his friend Velma Candyass, the leader of the Montreal Burlesque Dance Troop, the Dead Dolls, to explore and photograph the event. The 35th anniversary show focused on creating awareness about the forced expropriation the Café may be facing due to the building of the new Hydro Québec offices. We’ve also been covering this story on FTB since June 2009.

Spending most of his night swinging from front to back stages, Hugo captured the intimate and controversial side of the performers. The burlesque artists performances centered on dramatic impersonations of blue collars workers in the City of Montreal.

The majority of the artists featured in the   show were performing in protest against the City and its private promoters. Hugo’s images are a testament to the devotion, talent and creativity of and to all of the hard blue collar workers in Montreal.

Enjoy this wonderful series. Check back next week for the premier of Hugo’s dark post-card series.

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