Recently I have been spending some of my evenings in the park photographing the people who use it and the scenery that catches my eye. I live very near Park Jeanne Mance and Mont Royal Park, and I visit the park many times a day with my daughter. Even before having a kid my husband and I would spend a lot of time in the parks around our house. In the Mile End/Plateau neighbourhood few people have their own private patch of earth and so the parks become our backyards. That is where you meet friends, have a picnic and a drink, play games, have a party, go swimming, or read a book when your apartment is too hot. Montreal's parks are so well used it is amazing. On a nice night hundreds of people will be peacefully occupying a single park. It is really such a wonderful thing to see and so I wanted to try to capture some of this convivial spirit. The images above were taken on my first photographic foray into this potential project. It was one of the first nice Sundays of this season and so many people were in the park enjoying the weather and the tam-tam beats. I have been photographing in the park for a few weeks now and incredibly everyone that I have approached to photograph has said yes. I think that the Hasselblad helps but none the less I was amazed that in this internet age people were so willing to be photographed by a stranger, so thanks everyone. I'll be visiting the park again soon.
