Contact in T.O
March 10th, 2009 | posted by Rachel S | Posted in Art
by Daniel Wilson
Caitlin Cronenberg was the belle of the ball at CONTACT photography festival fundraiser recently at the Burroughs Building. As the guest artist of the party she was showing dresses she sewed herself (with some admitted difficulty), printed with her photographs of Canadian women in the arts. The photographs were part of a project created in designer Rosemarie Umetsu’s basement where local figures in the arts played dress up and climbed in a eight by three foot wooden cage built by Cronenberg and dressed with fabric. The results were fabulous and as powerful as the women in the photos. Visit www.caitlincronenberg.com as soon as you can.
Continuing with the obvious photography theme of the event, famed local photographers Alex vs Alex created a mini photo studio where guests got the chance to be styled by the incomparable Kealan Sullivan of 69 Vintage and shot by AlexvsAlex (www.alexvsalex.com). As people mingled, the photos were projected on one of the walls and everyone waited anxiously to see how fierce they looked.
And with a handful of very noticeable exceptions the guests did look fierce. Toronto dj superstar and single name celeb Vaneska looked ravishing in a vintage print dress bought just that day. Fritz Helder and The Phantoms prowled the party like a gang of wildcats escaped from Karl Lagerfeld’s personal zoo. Kealan breezed through the party as effortlessly as always making everyone question why they weren’t wearing what she was and if they could ever possibly look as good in it. The celebrity wattage was upped by the early appearance of one of my art heros David Cronenberg, looking every bit A Director.
Thanks to Morad Affifi for pulling off a fantastic event that may have been the pre-Fashion Week break from hibernation this city needed. It was so refreshing to see people out and dressed up again, recession be damned.
For more information and details on the 2009 CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival, May 1-31, visit www.contactphoto.com
Tags: photography
