Laurence Butet-Roch
Toronto, Canada

+ 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.