As part of the featured exhibitions of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival 2016, the Gladstone Hotel is pleased to present Paris: Baras / Les Roses d’Acier by Nick Kozak and We Shall See by Ian Willms on the third and fourth floor.

Join us for the opening receptions on May 5, 2016 from 7-­10pm. The photoshows will run throughout May.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We Shall See / Ian Willms

We Shall See is the series of photographs that Ian Willms initiated while visiting his father in the hospital after a catastrophic accident while on a motorcycle tour of South Africa. The images began as Instagram posts documenting the details of their daily routine, created in an effort to visually communicate and cope with the emotional struggle in facing his father’s traumatic injuries. The series quickly grew to comprise more than 200 photographs. Willms’ father suddenly died in May, 2015. “His unexpected loss meant a violent transition within me; from an optimistic hardship to an undefined and unexplored emotional void,” he explains. “Recovery from loss is a long process. Only time heals these emotional wounds. So, we shall see.

Ian Willms is a member of Boreal Collective and has been supported by Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. His work resides between photojournalism and contemporary photography.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Baras / Les Roses d’Acier by Nick Kozak

Nick Kozak’s will exhibit two series of photographs that document the lives of two migrant groups in Parisian suburbs, Baras (a collective of more than 100 West African male migrants that fled the Libyan civil war in 2011) and Les Roses d’Acier (a group of seven Chinese women who gave their life savings to pursue a new life in France, but were forced to turn to prostitution in order to pay debts. They now work to defend the rights of all Chinese sex works in the Parisian neighbourhood of Belleville). His work captures the hope these newcomers have as they arrive searching for better lives, and the consequential barriers they face when trying to secure legal employment and housing.

Nick Kozak is a freelance photojournalist whose current work is focused on the issues of community and identity, their inseparability and constant state of flux. He explores communities that are displaced, marginalized, and/or those carving out new social spaces out of necessity or a desire to redefine a collective identity.