Frédéric Tougas

Montreal

Frédéric Tougas is a self-taught photographer from Montreal, Canada.  His work explores the way societies interact with their natural environments, often highlighting singular occurrences of beauty within the mundane.  

“My latest work seeks to invite viewers to reflect upon the human experience through sensitive in situ observations.  My approach to the medium is particularly introspective, translating into intimate photographs in which I raise existential questions about our interactions with the environment.  I want to create a visual document about the resulting aesthetics of these natural, modified or created environments and the way societies and their constructs fit into these spaces.

We are drawn to otherworldly sights in an attempt to elevate ourselves, to temporarily evade the banality of existence. We seek out something immense to instigate a sense of awe and wonder; distortions of reality, or mysterious elements occurring within natural phenomena.    

Photographing these details while excluding what surrounds them requires a suspension of belief, creating places that cease to exist past the creation of their images. In a sense, these works of art are a manipulation of the lanscape: a joint effort between man and nature.”

Frédéric Tougas will be hosting an analog photography workshop at Archive Contemporary.