5 Questions: Maryann Camilleri of The Magenta Foundation
5 Questions for Maryann Camilleri of The Magenta Foundation.
Maryann what’s your background and how did The Magenta Foundation come about?
My background is a mixture of educational and professional experiences within the photographic industry. I started as a photographer but my love for books and magazines overpowered my desire to work behind the lens so I made my way into publishing. By the time I turned 25 I had my own work published and had started a magazine so my path to where I am now, and my current role in this industry, really started to gel almost 20 years ago.
I lived in New York City for close to ten years and worked hard to become established within the international arts publishing market. One day about seven years ago, when I was back visiting Toronto, a friend told me about a concept he had for a book; a compendium of contemporary Canadian photographers. He saw my enthusiasm during our conversation and so offered me the chance to run with the idea on my own. I thought it would be a fun diversion from the responsibilities of my regular job in NYC as well as an interesting way to re-familiarize myself with the Canadian community of photographers. While I was meeting artists I began to feel very inspired and had an epiphany that I should be working back in Canada, full-time, helping to give Canadian photographers a credible international platform, a dedicated champion for artist publishing. Two months later, the larger concept for The Magenta Foundation was formed and I found myself so immersed in meetings that I had to permanently – and suddenly – find a local home base in Toronto. My poor girlfriends in New York; they got the call to pack up my things because I wouldn’t be coming back – I didn’t even have time to do that on my own! It’s hard to believe, seven years later, what can happen in a split second if you have belief and conviction. The ball had really started rolling quickly and the decision to make my move really was that immediate. It was also bloody hard but I’ve never backed down from a challenge and have a habit of setting myself seemingly impossible tasks. So far, so good.
Anyway, the book project that brought me back to Toronto became Carte Blanche, Vol. 1: Photography, and it became The Magenta Foundation’s calling card. With the research for CBV1 completed and in the design phase, I started thinking about how to work with the amazing network of talented artists and curators that I’d built. The whole process felt so organic.
Can you briefly explain what Flash Forward is and how it began?
When I was in university, I graduated among a class of 40 students. Today, from those 40 graduates, only six of us are working within our industry. Self-confidence isn’t something we are born with; it’s a learned value of worth and if people can get recognition for their efforts, increased determination can result. I wanted to find a way to empower, encourage and educate emerging photographers. I knew that with the right opportunities in place for recent grads, things could change to keep them invested in their own professional progress. Looking back now it’s clear to me that my goal was this: to create a new type of artist; to build confidence, educate, and empower by creating a vehicle that embraces emerging photographers on their own terms. Flash Forward does all of those things.
The initiation of Flash Forward was a two-school exchange program with exhibitions in Toronto and NYC, along with a published catalogue of the work. In its first year, it was such a hit with professors and grad students from the two participating schools that we decided to open it up to make it a competition for emerging photographers from three countries, regardless of whether the competitors were graduate students or had been working professionally for a few years. We targeted Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. I always knew it could be a success but I never anticipated the incredible growth of the program in its seven short years. It inspires me to want to do even more!
Flash Forward has grown hugely and is internationally recognized. Since its conception how has it changed?
The major change at Flash Forward is that after the competition’s anniversary in Year Five, when we asked ten previous Flash Forward artists how the program helped them. Reading over the responses was… wow, it was a very special moment. My program, that was experimental and not that ambitious at the beginning (just two schools and a handful of participants), was actually working and making a real difference for the over-500 photographers whose work ended up being juried, published, featured in exhibitions and covered by important art journals around the world.
Of course, I also felt we were hitting a plateau by the end of that fifth year, so my board and I sat down and tossed around the idea of growing Flash Forward into a festival to complement the competition. My board agreed with my ideas and approved the development of the concept. I love my board. I know people reading this who work in not-for-profit organizations are shaking their heads, but there is a lot to be said for a tight-knit group of individuals from different disciplines who share a deep passion for the arts. We are a small group at Magenta but we share the same end-goal and use a “divide and conquer” approach to our projects. To test the waters about our idea, we needed to put out feelers across the Toronto arts community to get a sense about whether the timing would be right, or not, for a festival celebrating emerging photographers. We held a meeting for 17 people – all from various arts orgs, festivals, city departments and potential venues – and presented our concept to them. We received very enthusiastic feedback and knew our instincts were leading us in the right direction. Flash Forward Festival was born.
The Flash Forward team did a lot of research, met with a lot of advisors, and once we had dates and a venue secured, we began to recruit guest speakers, panelists, and workshop leaders. That was an 18-month process. We successfully kicked off our inaugural year in Toronto with a five-day festival in October 2010. With that success behind us, we were approached by one of our sponsors, Fairmont Battery Wharf, to take a look at their property in Boston to see if it would be a good fit to do something similar. The Faimont Battery Wharf and it’s surroundings blew us away. Now, here I sit today overlooking the harbourwalk at Battery Wharf, six months after Toronto and ten days before we kick off the first installment of Flash Forward Festival Boston, thinking to myself, “CHRIST, what a ride this is!” After all of this activity, I think I’d be happy to lead that organization that does only pop-up festivals all over the world. “Have team, will travel,” right?
Being a judge on this year’s award I noticed a few trends in certain areas of photography. What have you noticed recently and how has the work that young photographic artists changed?
That’s a pretty loaded question. The thoughts that come to my head are:
1] We are seeing many more Photojournalism and Documentary entries. This tells me that we need to create more promotional vehicles for these artists and their work. PJ and DOC are being underserviced.
2] Photography and technology are really merging now. This year’s Bright Spark Award Winner, Canadian Jessica Eaton, is a clear example of where things are moving, have a look here.
Jessica Eaton
Jessica Eaton
3] The recession that began at the end of 2008 is heavily showing its influence now. Many methodical and introspective bodies of work, and a definite uneasiness about the future, is evident in this year’s US submissions.
4] I find that each year there is always one country that has more than a handful of heavy hitters. This year I think the UK had some really strong and inventive work.
5] My favourite part of each year is all the names I get to know and the bodies of work I get to see for the first time. Who knew that after seven years I’d still be thrilled to look at all the submissions?
The Magenta Foundation also publishes books. What book projects are in the pipeline?
We just finished a stunning monograph, The Station Point, by Canadian photographer Robert Bourdeau .
Later in June will see the release of the seventh issue of Magenta Magazine Online our quarterly arts journal, as well as the launch of Imprint, a brand new blog dedicated to all things Flash Forward.
Robert Bourdeau: The Station Point
What role does the festival format have to Magenta as a whole?
Flash Forward 2011 will be exhibited in October, accompanied by its annual catalogue. Then the major focus of the following year will be programming two Flash Forward Festivals for 2012; Boston in June and then Toronto in the fall. There’s always something going on and we are never without tons of work to keep us busy and out of mischief.