Aislinn Leggett

About Aislinn

Aislinn Leggett was born in 1981, and grew up on a small farm in Namur, Quebec. At the age of 17, she moved to Montreal. She completed her studies at the Dawson Institute of Photography in 2005. In Montreal, she continues to create visual art, approaching her work through two main styles, traditional black-and-white documentary photography and colour photo-montage.

In projects ranging from the Quebec Rodeos to the Pillow Fighting League to her street photographs that resonate with the joy and transience of daily lives, Aislinn has trained her camera on marginal and unique communities, bringing their narratives into the fold of the everyday. Her photographs excel at mapping the intimate spaces between people, capturing nuance and ritual, and distilling, with great sensitivity, a sense of people's relationship with the land.

In addition to her traditional, documentary work, Aislinn uses photographs themselves as parts of a larger canvas, where the images themselves collide with and confront one another, pushing the viewer to a more complex understanding of both the personal and the historical. Through the use of diptychs, collage, and manipulation, photography itself becomes a medium alongside other artistic approaches, exploring not only what we remember, but the myriad ways in which remembering happens.

Aislinn's approach to photography has been greatly influenced by the works of Gary Winogrand, Bruce Davidson and George Zimbel, and the street photography of the 60s and 70s. Like these photographers, it is the traditional film camera with which Aislinn feels most comfortable. In the solitude of her darkroom, she opens herself to the worlds and stories, those vanished or silenced, that might be pulled once more into life. With her talent for and ease with digital manipulation, she playfully and astutely recreates space and exaggerates stories.

Aislinn's work has shown in the United States, and Canada, most recently at the Latin Film Festival of Rhode Island and her photos have appeared in FILE Magazine, F-Stop, Rolling Stone, and Grafika.

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Professional Training

Dawson College, Institute of photography, Montreal, Quebec, 2003-2005

Solo Exhibition

2008 Eight Seconds, The Quebec Rodeos, Espace F, Matane, QC - Upcoming: June-August
2008 Eight Seconds, The Quebec Rodeos, Centre d'Action Culturel de la MRC de Papineau, St-Andre-Avelin, QC - Upcoming: July
2008 Eight Seconds, The Quebec Rodeos, Maison de la Culture Mercier, Montreal
2007 Eight Seconds, The Quebec Rodeos, Warren G. Flowers Gallery, curator David Hopkins, Montreal
2007 Encuentros, El Centro Provincial de Artes Plasticas y Disneo, curator Hector Frometa, Havana, Cuba

Group Exhibition

2007 Photographs of Cuba; Explorations of Cuban Society and Interiors. Latin Film Festival of Rhode Island, Gail Cahalan Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island, United-States of America
2006 Art against War, Cube Gallery, Ottawa
2006 La Nuit Blanche - Montréal in Lights, Gallery SAS, Montreal
2005-2006 Espaces Affectifs, Regional Museum of Rimouski, curator Eve-Lyne Beaudry, Quebec
2005 Dawson Photography Graduates, Art Mûr, Montreal
2004 Les Coups de Cœurs Lux, Gallery SAS, Montreal
2003-2005 PIEA-Photo International Education Association, world-wide exhibition

Publications

The Morning News, April 2008
File Magazine, February 2008
15th Providence Latin Film Festival, festival catalog, September 2007
Imagine News, September 2007
America News, September-October 2007
F-Stop Magazine, May 2007
RollingStone Magazine, January 2007
Focus Justice, the magazine of the McGill Legal Information Clinic, 2006 & 2007
Espaces Affectifs, exhibition catalog, Regional Museum of Rimouski, 2005
Photo District News Photo Annual 2005
Applied Arts Photography and Illustration Annual 2005
Grafika November 2004
PhotoLife Student Special September 2004
Photo Sélection Student Special September 2004

Interviews

I Am a Tourist, The Morning News – TMN Featured Gallery Interview with Rosecrans Baldwin, April 2008
Eight Seconds, The Quebec Rodeos, CBC Radio 1 – All in a weekend with Dave Bronstetter, January 27 2008
Huit secondes, les rodeos du Québec, CIBL Radio-Montréal, January 22 2008
Eight Seconds, The Quebec Rodeos, CBC Radio 1 – Radio Noon with Anne Lagacé Dowson, November 15 2007

Reviews

"Capturing rodeo's true grit" Martin Coles, The Gazette, Arts & Life Section (Print & Online), November 2007
"Les Cowboys" Christine Redfern, Montreal Mirror, November 2007
"Picture This" Montreal Hour, November 2007
"Espaces affectifs: Nouvelle exposition au Musée régional de Rimouski” Bertille
Courtis, Vitrine du Bas-Saint-Laurent, December 2005
"Intime Demeure pour Quatres Artistes ou l’Art de la Subjectivité" Julie Levesque, Le Mouton Noir, December 2005

Awards and Distinctions

2008 Research/Creation Grant, Conseil des arts et letters du Québec
2005 Bursary from Dawson College Institute of Photography
2005 Prix Lux finalist, documentary category for Eight Seconds, The Quebec Rodeos. Prix Lux finalist, student category for Memorable Encounters
2003 PIEA-Photo International Education Association 2003, 2nd place

Collection

Maison Alcan private art collection: piece from Urbanscapes