`IMAGES OF MY LIFE'
Katherine Takpannie, an Inuk fine-art photographer who has no formal training, tells Lynn Saxberg that her being named one of this year's winners of the National Gallery's New Generation Photography Award is `surreal.'
Katherine Takpannie was 15, a self-described “little vagrant” running wild around downtown Ottawa, when her uncle gave her a point-and-shoot camera.
It proved to be a turning point for the Inuk teenager, who was born in Montreal and had been in and out of foster homes since she was a baby, finally making a break for freedom at the age of 13.
“I ran away because I wanted to escape all the pain and trauma and so I became a delinquent on the streets,” recalls the soft-spoken Takpannie, who's now 30, engaged and the mother of a toddler.
“My life was not easy. There were a lot of difficulties and systemic barriers that I faced. And as a teenager, I didn't express them in the healthiest of ways.”
The camera became her prime artistic outlet. Takpannie captured images of her friends and their daredevil escapades on the streets, bridges, rooftops and historic sites of the nation's capital.
She started with a 365-day project: To shoot and post a single image every day for a year.
“When you're 15, life is all about your friends. I was really into both landscape and portraiture, and the moments I captured of my friends and the stuff we would get into. The fun, but also the good, the bad and the ugly,” she says. “Photography, for me, is a way to express experiences I have as an Inuit in Canada today.”
More than a decade later, Takpannie is one of three winners of Canada's prestigious New Generation Photography Prize, an accolade that comes with a $10,000 prize for each winner and a group exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada.
The other two 2020 winners are Vancouver's Noah Friebel and Toronto-based Curtiss Randolph. Due to the ongoing pandemic, their work will be exhibited next year, alongside that of 2021's three winners.
For Takpannie, who has no formal art training, news of the prize was “surreal,” she said in an interview, taking a break from her work-at-home day job with the federal government. “I just take images of my life, and I am very grateful and fortunate to have all of these opportunities that come my way.”
A graduate of Ottawa's Nunavut Sivuniksavut program, Takpannie grew up disconnected from her language, culture and land, having never lived in the Far North. Her mother was born in Nunavut but spent much of her childhood either in a sanatorium with tuberculosis or attending a federal day school, where she was beaten if she spoke Inuktitut. Later in life, she drank to cope with the trauma.
“My anaana was told that she had to assimilate,” Takpannie said, using the Inuktitut word for mother. “She didn't want to teach me and my siblings Inuktitut because she was scared we wouldn't be able to fit into Canadian society. She wanted to ensure that she could give us the best life possible.”
One of Takpannie's most compelling photos shows two friends on a rooftop, silhouetted against the Ottawa skyline at night, as if taking stock of the myriad of possibilities in the big city. One is a photographer friend, while the other was her spiritual brother, another urban Inuk. Tragically, he took his own life a little over a month ago.
“That image represents something extremely important to me because I want to advocate for help for the Inuit,” she said, pointing to the high rate of suicide among Inuk youths. “There's not enough resources allocated to help. My brother is a testament to that. He's laid to rest.”
Social media, particularly Insta
gram, helped Takpannie draw the attention of Ontario's art world, leading to exhibitions in Ottawa and Guelph. Her IG profile is full of striking images of friends posed in gritty urban landscapes as well as intimate portraits that show the beauty of the female form in nature.
She also includes politically charged images from protests such as the Black Lives Matter march and a pro-seal hunt rally on Parliament Hill.
One of Takpannie's first major influences was the renowned Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook, a close family friend. “I absolutely love her work in regards to contemporary life,” Takpannie said.
“She's showcasing extreme socio-economic conditions that are astounding. She continues to inspire me.”
Despite the connection with Pootoogook, the National Gallery's Andrea Kunard, associate curator of photographs, believes Takpannie's work stands on its own merit, and shouldn't be compared with the coloured pencil and ink drawings of Pootoogook, who died in Ottawa in 2016.
Pootoogook's body was found in the Rideau River; police called it a suspicious death but no charges were laid.
Kunard, who's also a jury member for the award, says Takpannie's photos show a powerful sense of purpose, combined with an instinctive command of the environments she chooses to include.
“For someone who hasn't gone to art school, she has a very powerful sense of self, and I think that comes through very strongly in her photography,” Kunard said.
“The urban environment that she's seeking out, with the graffiti and all the energies that are trapped in these kinds of environments, she takes them on and confronts them and makes them her own, which I find quite exciting.”
I was really into both landscape and portraiture, and the moments I captured of my friends and the stuff we would get into.