Esmaa Mohamoud, The Brotherhood FUBU (For Us By Us) (2020), production detail, mural Courtesy of Georgia Scherman Projects
The Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival returns to Toronto in May, when it celebrates its 25th anniversary. “We’ve supported tens of thousands of artists over that time; we had 1.4 million two years ago,” says executive director Darcy Killeen, who tries to get to every exhibition and project opening as many as 200 in some years on his trusty bike.
Though the pandemic seriously impacted last year’s festival, it did go ahead but largely shifted to online. “Only about a third of the 186 shows actually opened,” Killeen says. The Contact gallery and office at its festival hub on Spadina Avenue stayed shut, with staff working remotely, but the move brought some benefits. “Last year was a great opportunity to do some new online things, which we’d never done before,” says Bonnie Rubenstein, Contact’s artistic di