Photographer captures the dreamlike charms of Bridgeport
KITCHENER — Residents of Bridgeport might have noticed a photographer wandering their streets for months on end recently, on an artistic mission.
Natalie Hunter, a University of Waterloo fine arts graduate in 2013, was awarded a commission from the City of Kitchener to create “Pieces of Light,” an installation of translucent backlit panels of layered images for the Bridgeport Community Centre. The images, installed June 10, were to reflect the community.
To get a sense of the community, Hunter needed to walk the streets, aided by new maps and one from the mid-1800s. Her first impression was that Bridgeport is all about the Grand River.
“One girl, when she approached me, I asked her what resonated with her in terms of memories of Bridgeport,” said Hunter. “For her, it was the river.”
The waterway runs through the centre of the village and is deeply connected with Bridgeport’s industrial past, but there are also old houses, a 1934 bowstring bridge, and remnants of a crumbling sugar mill, all there to discover.
“This was a visual time line,” she said. “It was refreshing to see in this global age there is still a little community like Bridgeport.”
Hunter began photographing every inch of the village and the Grand, seeing it in all its moods, in good and bad weather, in all seasons.
“Most of the photos were shot in both analog (film) and digital,” Hunter said. “I decided to go with analog.”
She shot on 120 film, which gave her the richness and detail she was looking for, and used coloured filters to give the images an almost dreamlike sense.
Hunter’s panels at the community centre on Tyson Drive are available for viewing at any time, but there were a lot of images left over once the project was complete and she wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to Bridgeport.
Hence her new exhibit, also entitled “Pieces of Light,” on display until July 29 at Open Sesame, a gallery and bookstore adjacent Kitchener City Hall.
Though not backlit, the eight framed prints have an ethereal quality, where a maple tree can be mauve, the sky green and the river yellow or red.
Did she know the community before embarking on this project?
“No, not really,” said the artist who lives in Hamilton and teaches at UW.
Hunter’s lack of familiarity with Bridgeport might have worked in her favour. Everything she saw and experienced on her walks was new and exciting as she didn’t have any preconceived notions about the village.
Her interest in creating the work was to tease out the relationship between memory and place for the viewer. Even for those familiar with Bridgeport there is no immediate recognition. Hunter didn’t want to capture reality, but rather create an artistic impression. These are not photographs to look at for one minute and move on, each image requires pondering.
“You’re not really sure of the location,” she said. “It looks familiar.”
For Hunter, that one little slice at the eastern edge of Kitchener has inspired her in a way she didn’t expect.
“I was drawn to so many of the images I had taken,” she said. “You see what’s important.”
Hunter is also running a workshop July 8 at Open Sesame, to share her light manipulation and colour filter techniques which she creates with items that can be as simple as a glass bottle.