This month’s Awesome grant goes to Tony Fouhse, an Ottawa-based photographer who has shot a variety of projects including one of his most recent finished in 2010 which docmented the lives of a small society of cocaine addicts in a series of portraits. In his words:

“The late fall and winter of 2010/11 I helped Stephanie, a heroin addict, to get into rehab and documented the process. She has been heroin free for 5 months now. I have a lot of experience getting out into the world, finding subject matter and bringing it to people’s attention. Making contact and gaining access is rarely a problem. The people I’m interested in photographing seem to recognize that my intentions are honourable.”

His newest project is titled "OTTAWA, a survey."

With this work he intends to continue his exploration of Ottawa, but, as the title suggests, this work will be much broader in scope and much more inclusive in nature. “My intention with this project is to bring to light various, often overlooked, aspects of my city. I intend to shoot portraits, architectural views and interiors.”

Tony will be shooting this project using a 4×5 camera and film. This tool yields phenomenal negatives (which he scans and then prints). As well, the camera slows down the whole process and makes certain demands of the subjects which, in turn, elicits certain responses.