Family
Behind the scenes — Life in a Morning exhibition
Isn’t it funny how sometimes you don’t realize you have a dream until it comes true?
In 2021, I was encouraged by my two photography mentors to start a personal project. I had done many personal photography projects with my family before, but nothing with other people or based on a certain theme.
It began with a brainstorming of ideas. I wondered what it would be like to photograph life in a day rather than a day in the life. The riddle “What has four legs in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening?” came to mind.
Do you know the answer?
The human.
So, I wondered how to represent that concept with documentary family photography in a few hours. And that’s how my Life in a Morning project was born.
I didn’t have a definite idea of what I’d do with the project in the end. Nevertheless, it was a good excuse for me to photograph other people with a theme I enjoyed and a great way to hone in on some of my photography skills.
The project
For over a year, I photographed the morning routine of girls and women aged 0 to over 100 years old. With a desire to paint a close portrait of their reality, I gave them no direction. The only rule was not to change their daily routine: no unusual house cleaning or new clothing purchases for the session, and no staging.
I joined each participant in her home at her regular wake-up time and stayed with her for about two hours. I was there when she woke up, opened up the curtains, fed her baby, got ready for the day, had breakfast, kissed her partner goodbye… I made sure to photograph her with her family, if she had one, to document the moments of interaction.
The beginning of a dream
In May 2022, I saw a call for submissions for the Centre d’arts visuels de l’Alberta (CAVA) in Edmonton and thought I’d give it a try. This was a first for me—I had never submitted my work to an art gallery before and wasn’t too sure how it worked. I put a lot of effort into my submission and made a mock-up of what could become my first solo exhibition. I couldn’t believe I’d have the room all to myself if I was selected. How exciting it was to do whatever I wanted in that space!
Time passed by and I was eagerly awaiting the results. A little over a month after submitting my proposal, I received an email informing me that I was one of the six artists selected. What wonderful news!
My Life in a Morning project now had a real purpose and an end goal—it would soon become my very first solo exhibition!
A new perspective
This opportunity made me see my photography business with a different eye.
You see, I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2006 with Oops! Design, the graphic design and web development studio my husband and I co-founded and still run together. I’ve always had a sense of business and that’s how I saw my photography business from day one. I was making art and serving individuals and their families, but I had never really seen myself as an artist doing art for the greater public.
With an exhibition coming up, my vision of my art shifted and opened up a world of possibilities.
I can now push my photography somewhere I had never thought of going before and I love it! My mind is full of ideas and I have the drive to make them come true. It may take some time, but I have a feeling the passion is there to last.
My biggest dream is to get people to crave documentary family photography in their life. To see how valuable it is to them and the people that surround them.
A dream come true
This is another reason why I was so emotional the day of the opening reception of my Life in a Morning exhibition at CAVA in Edmonton. For over 10 months, I had seen and edited a simple mock-up of my exhibition on my computer. To look at my work printed in large format and installed on the walls of an art gallery made me feel so proud of my accomplishment. And to share this experience with over 100 people was the icing on the cake!
A few obstacles along the way
The preparation and installation of the exhibition came with a few hiccups. First, I received damaged test prints from the printer. Second, the wall decals I picked up the morning I was going to begin the installation were not what I expected. I wanted cut-out vinyl lettering. Instead, I got a large adhesive poster with black characters printed on a white background. There wasn’t supposed to be any background! I just wanted to cry…
For the longest time, I tried to figure out what to do. I didn’t have much time left and I didn’t want to invest more money in the project at this point. So I finally decided to cut out each character by hand… except my bio and the description of the exhibition. What a time-consuming task—but I’m so glad I chose to do it!
Third, it took a long time to figure out how to install the photos on the walls to make them straight and aligned. Fourth, I had to reorganize my set up because the measurements provided by the gallery did not consider the main door. And fifth, we had to work around wet paint…
Such a learning curve! At least now I’m ready for my next exhibition!
A virtual visit of the Life in a Morning exhibition
In the upcoming posts, I’ll present the entire exhibition one person at a time. Sign up for my mailing list to read all the stories. You’ll be notified when a new episode is up!
I'm Marie-Pierre, an easygoing mother of two and a documentary family photographer. I believe we can all learn and grow from other people's experiences. Real life stories help us relate to each other, open our minds and feel better about ourselves.
this blog is a collection of featured client stories, tips, and articles on various family related topics. I hope you will find some inspiration!
