Gabor Szilasi‘s streetscapes of Montreal are on display in the city’s recently created Quartier des Spectacles
Taken 40 years ago in beautiful black and white, the images are on display in the very location many were taken.
Gabor Szilasi was honoured with the Paul-Emile-Borduas Prize, Quebec’s highest honour for visual artist in 2009. The following year he won the Governor General’s Award. It is given to Canadian artists who have distinguished themselves in their medium.
Gabor Szilasi, did not intend to become a photographer, it was part of the evolution of his new life in Canada. Born in Hungary in 1928, he first became interested in photography while in medical school in 1948. Eventually escaping the communist regime, Gabor Szilasi came to Canada in 1957. He soon found work at the Office du Film du Quebec where he says he learned photography on the job.
He became a teacher at Concordia University but through the years always pursued his personal photography.
Of his work, the photographer said in a 2009 interview with the National Gallery, “My subjects in photography really deal with everyday life, mostly with people and their environment whether it’s indoors or outdoors and that is what always interested me. I like… how everything changes, how everything is in eternal flux.”
Carmel Kilkenny spoke with Alexandra Maier, of the Quartier des Spectacles to hear more about this evocative exhibit:
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