Photomanipulation nominee

Children demonstrate an insatiable thirst for discovery. They are passionate about everything: what swarms underground, floats in the sky, grows in the wind, wades about, smells, hops and shines… “This immediate contact with nature and the world was for the Romantics a sign of the profound kinship between poet and child, both understood the immense life force of things”, writes Alain Montandon. This visceral love for the environment and its wonders is a rare quality in adults. Yet human beings must hasten to radically reinvent their rapport with Mother Earth if we are to survive. Perhaps a first step to operate such a shift would be to rekindle with our inner child?

Catherine Rondeau is a Montreal-based Canadian fine art photographer and videographer. Born in 1971 in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, she grew up in Sherbrooke, Québec, in a predominantly French-speaking milieu. After completing an Arts and Letters program in junior college, she went on to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography from Montreal's Concordia University. Her combined skills in writing and lens work allowed her to carve out a career as a freelance video journalist. In 2010, Rondeau earned a Master’s degree in Communication from the Université du Québec à Montréal. The following year, she published an essay on the concept of fantasy in folklore and fairy tales. Inspired by her research, she made a return to photography with an initial series of digital photomontages (Beyond the Looking Glass) that focuses on the imaginary world of children. In her latest series (Northern Crossing), the artist naturally transitioned to explore the period of early adolescence.