This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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We Shall See, the fourth solo exhibition by Ian Willms, will open on May 5th, as a Featured Exhibition in the 20th CONTACT Photography Festival.
"On November 10th, 2014, my father had a catastrophic accident while on a motorcycle tour of South Africa. I went to find him, paralyzed and comatose in a hospital. I visited him three times a day. I knew the names of the hospital staff, the menu items offered by the cafeteria, even the access code for the security doors to the ICU ward. We hadnt been close for much of my life, but this accident brought us together. Weeks later, he awoke and regained his basic sensesit appeared that a new future could emerge."
Ian Willms
We Shall See is the series of photographs that Ian Willms initiated while visiting his father in the hospital. 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 of facing his fathers traumatic injuries. The series quickly grew to include hundreds of 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, Willms explains. Recovery from loss is a long process. Only time heals these emotional wounds. So, we shall see.
About the artist:
Ian Willms B. Canada, 1985 photographs the marks left upon communities by the passage time and the intimacies of inevitable compromise. He communicates narratives of his subjects through an immersive and lyrical approach to the documentary photo essay.
Based in Toronto, Willms is a founding member of Boreal Collective and is represented commercially by NAMARA. He has carried out assignments internationally, contributing to The New York Times, The International New York Times, Harpers, TIME, The New Yorker, The Guardian Magazine and The Globe and Mail, among others. Willms holds an Honours Diploma in Photojournalism and is a previous recipient of the Reportage by Getty Images Emerging Talent mentorship.
His photo essays have won numerous awards and grants, including a Canada Council for the Arts grant, an Ontario Arts Council grant, the CONTACT Photography Festival Portfolio Reviewers Award, three Magenta Foundation awards, an NPPA award, a Pictures of the Year International award and a National Magazine Award.
Willms has shown his work in exhibitions and installations at venues around the world, including the Museum of Photographic Arts, Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, Photoville, CONTACT Gallery and OBorn Contemporary.
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