+ 1 514 796 3588
laurence@borealcollective.com
Laurence Butet-Roch (b. 1985, Montreal, Canada) is a freelance photographer, writer, photo editor and educator. She was nine during the last Quebec referendum. As her parents, staunch separatists, explained the stakes, she imagined La Belle Province becoming an island. The celebratory bottle of champagne was never opened and Laurence began embracing English culture. Existing with a foot in two solitudes, as Hugh MacLennan once wrote, she began exploring the interplay between identity, place and politics. She has spent time with workers in Thetford Mines ahead of the closure of the last remaining Asbestos mine in the country, as well as with residents of Aamjiwnaang First Nation who live surrounded by the densest concentration of petrochemical plants in Canada, Ontario. In the same spirit, she’s also studying Quebec’s distinctive identity politics and surveying resistance movements in rural America.
Laurence holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of British Columbia (2007), attended the School of Photographic Arts: Ottawa (2010) and completed a Master of Digital Media at Ryerson University (2016), thanks to an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Her thesis focusing on combining Indigenous storytelling practices and experiential media, received the Ryerson Gold Medal and the Ryerson Board of Governors Award.
Her work has been published in Polka Magazine, The New York Times Lens Blog, TIME Lightbox, The New Yorker Photo Booth, The British Journal of Photography, Raw View, and National Geographic, amongst others.
Personal Website / Instagram / Blink
Selected Exhibitions
2018 - Our Grandfathers Were Chiefs, Galerie Pierre Léon, Alliance Française, Toronto, Canada (solo)
2017 - Muse, Contact Festival, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, Canada (group)
2015 - The Collective, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto, Canada (group)
2015 - Subject(ive), Format Festival, Derby United Kingdom (group)
2014 - Tension, Zoom Photo Festival, Chicoutimi, Canada (group)
2012 - The Last Mine, Musée Minéralogique et Minier, Thetford Mines, Canada (solo)
2010 - Close to Home, City Hall Gallery, Ottawa, Canada (group)
Selected Awards
2018 - Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant
2016 - Magenta Flash Forward
2015 - Ontario Graduate Scholarship
2015 - Magenta Flash Forward
2010 - Montreal Mois de la Photo Emerging Photographer
2009 - Luna Bursary
Selected Publications
2017 - "An Evolving Traditions" in Willocq, P., Songs of the Walés, Heidelberg: Kehrer Verlag
2016 - "Seasons of Shadows" in Huneault, M., The Long Night of Mégantic, Amsterdam: Schilt
2016 - Photo essays in Wiebe, S., Everyday Exposure: Indigenous Mobilization and Environmental Justice in Canada’s Chemical Valley, Vancouver: UBC Press
Conferences and Workshops
2018 - Beyond Photojournalism, NASH80, Toronto, Canada
2017 - Reimagining Attawapiskat: Mixed Media Storytelling, Western Political Science Association, Vancouver, Canada
2017 - Women in Photojournalism, Ryerson Review of Journalism: Breaking Barriers Conference, Toronto, Canada
2017 - Narratives of Home: Teenage Refugees Photograph their Unique Personal Stories, Ismaili Center, Toronto, Canada
2016 - Long-Term Documentary Photo Projects: Crafting a Compelling Visual Story, Gallery 44, Toronto, Canada
2016 - How to Find, Research and Craft a Compelling Story, Photojournalism Conference, News Photographer Association of Canada, Toronto, Canada
2015 - Indigenous Territories in Cyberspace, Future Communications, York University (Toronto, Canada)
2015 - Finding Photography, World Press Photo, Toronto, Canada
2015 - SPAO Symposium: the Shrinking World of Photography, Ottawa, Canada
2014 - La Photographie à la Conquête de Nouveaux Espaces, Zoom International Meeting of Photojournalism, Chicoutimi, Canada.