The Wedge Collection – named for a wedge-shaped space in Toronto collector Kenneth Montague’s home – is a treasure trove of Black photography, not only from Canada, but also from Britain, Africa, South America, the United States and the Caribbean.
Montague, who grew up in Windsor, Ont., started exhibiting his collection at his home in 1997, hoping to increase awareness of Black artists. The son of Jamaican immigrants who encouraged him to take an interest in art, he was following his father’s motto – “lifting as we rise” – meaning helping others as you move forward through life.
“A young Black dentist with no formal training or academic art history background becoming a collector and opening a public art space in his private residence was a radical act,” Montague says in As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic, a new book with more than 100 images selected from his remarkable collection.
Published by Aperture, a New York non-profit foundation that works to support the photo community, the book offers intimate glimpses of Black life far removed from common portrayals in the media.
Courtney D. Garvin, "Bre & Josh," 2015, from "As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic" (Aperture, 2021) courtesy the artist
For instance, American photographer Courtney Garvin captures a compelling image of two of her cousins in Bre & Josh (2015). They sit in white metal chairs in the yard, holding hands, and staring directly at the camera. Similarly, Deanna Lawson, another American photographer, offers a peek into the life of the Coulson Family (2008), posed indoors beside their Christmas tree.
Deana Lawson, "Coulson Family," 2008, from "As We Rise: Photography Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic" (Aperture, 2021) © Deana Lawson, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York
There are older images too. A boy stands proudly with his bike, which flies a Union Jack, in Boy with Flag, Winford, in Handsworth Park (1970), by Vanley Burke, dubbed the godfather of Black British photography. Or a couple is out walking, seemingly to church, in American photographer Gordon Parks’ Husband and Wife, Sunday Morning, Detroit, Michigan (1950).
Vanley Burke, "Boy with Flag, Winford, in Handsworth Park," 1970, from "As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic" (Aperture, 2021) © Vanley Burke
Such images capture the stuff of everyday life. Indeed, in the preface, Nigerian-American author Teju Cole describes the book as a family album, saying the subjects look at ease and seem familiar, despite the spans of time and geography that separate them.
“As We Rise is about family, and what an enormous, confident, joyous and stylish family this is,” he writes.
“Too often in the larger culture, we see images of Black people in attitudes of despair, pain, or brutal isolation. As We Rise gently refuses that. It is not that people are always in an attitude of celebration – no, that would be a reverse but corresponding falsehood – but rather that they are present as human beings, credible, fully engaged in their world.”
Michèle Pearson Clarke, "Melisse Sunflowers, July 30," 2018, from "As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic" (Aperture, 2021) courtesy the artist
Many Canadian artists are in the book: Vancouver’s Stan Douglas, who will represent Canada at the next Venice Biennale; Luther Konadu, an emerging artist from Winnpeg; Trinidad-born Michèle Pearson Clarke, now based in Toronto; and Dawit L. Petros, the child of Eritrean refugees who settled in Canada. Others include Sandra Brewster, Anique Jordan, Camille Turner and Bidemi Oloyede, all based in Toronto.
As We Rise radiates warmth, not only in its images, but also in short texts by various writers, particularly when they write about their friendship with Montague, who serves on the board of the Art Gallery of Ontario, where he works to support Black artists. He seems a man much loved in his community.
Dawit L. Petros, "Hadenbes," 2005, from "As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic" (Aperture, 2021) courtesy the artist/Bradley Ertaskiran
Mark Sealy, a British curator interested in photography and social change, provides a thoughtful introduction. He discusses how photographs can help historically marginalized people “locate our missing chapters,” while also unlinking people from harmful societal narratives. Collecting photographs, he observes, becomes a form of care.
“Here, the Black body is not a distant bag carrier, an emaciated victim, or a broken war-torn figure rendered only as a dead history,” Sealy writes. “Here, the Black subject is a living, inspiring, loving, and aspirational subject – innovative and full of knowledge, transforming and claiming their rightful place in time.”
As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic: Aperture, 2021.
