Veteran local photographer Michael Schreier has been given the 2016 Karsh Award, a biennial $7,500 prize honouring an Ottawa artist for excellence using photography.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson presented the award during an exhibition of Schreier’s work at the Karsh-Masson Gallery on Sept. 15. The City Hall gallery features abstract images and portraits from Schreier’s current blog Camera Obscura, which explores the link between photography and memory.
City Council created the award in 2003 in honour of Yousuf and Malak Karsh, the famous brothers whose photographs highlighted Ottawa and are on permanent display at the National Gallery of Canada.
Marie-Christine Feraud, the funding officer in charge of the award, said “peer evaluation” from Ottawa’s artistic community, including curators, gallery owners and fellow artists, determined the laureate.
Alexandra Badzak, director and CEO of the Ottawa Art Gallery, nominated Schreier for the award.
The jury consisted of Alain Paiement, a contemporary photographer, Jeff Thomas, the 2008 Karsh Award recipient, and Eva Major-Marothy, the retired senior curator of acquisitions and research at the Portrait Gallery of Canada on Wellington Street.
Major-Marothy said Schreier was unanimously selected from a pool of six nominees on the basis of five criteria: artistic excellence and innovation, strong artistic vision, high technical standard, contribution to the artistic discipline and history of artistic achievement.
She called his work “evocative and beautiful” and said his range of photographs, from abstract to realism, made him stand out among the candidates.
In one exhibition piece, Schreier plays with disorientation by blurring the image in shades of pink and purple with bright spots to attract the eye from point to point. In another photograph, he explores angles, using a woman’s outstretched arm to draw a line between a glass of red wine and her grey hair. Both pieces are called Untitled.
Major-Marothy also praised Schreier’s role as a mentor to Ottawa’s young photographers over the past 35 years. Schreier said he explores artistic themes and techniques with his students, often by analyzing existing art, to develop the artists’ inspiration and vision.
“From what I know about Michael, he doesn’t give you answers. He pushes students to find things on their own,” Major-Marothy said. “He doesn’t want you to copy what he’s doing. He wants you to find things you’re good at.”
Schreier’s voice quavered as he thanked the crowded gallery of visitors, artists, friends and family members. He tearfully announced the exhibition is dedicated to his late friend and mentor, fellow Ottawa artist Dave Heath.
“It’s an award that’s directed towards me, but it implicates many people. It’s a continuity of people that celebrate the human voice, so it’s not just my responsibility,” Schreier said.
Schreier also explained his personal connection with Yousuf Karsh, as both were refugees. Schreier came to Canada in 1953 from Vienna, because his father feared cultural persecution if Russia annexed Austria, while Karsh fled the Armenian Genocide in 1924.
“One of the difficulties when you come to a country is you have the memories of one place but you’re living in another and you have to kind of rationalize that in some way, so it’s being in two places at once,” Schreier said. “(Yousuf Karsh and I) don’t make similar photographs, but we’re working from the same tradition.”
While presenting the award, Watson lauded city council’s role in creating and maintaining the prize.
“With the award of $7,500, the city is pleased to invest in its artists in order to ensure that the Karsh legacy and photography lives on,” Watson stated.
“There’s a community in this city, a creative voice in this city, that acknowledges not just its membership in the contribution to voice but to its celebration,” Schreier said. “Whether you are an artist or whether you are of its audience, we are all part of the same costume and that’s extremely important.”
Schreier was scheduled to host a guided tour of the gallery on Sept. 25. His exhibition will continue at the Karsh-Masson Gallery until Oct. 16.