Alumna holds reception for photography exhibit two years later

After setting up her exhibition in March 2020, CBC Journalist and alumna Talia Ricci’s “Women of the World” exhibit was held at the Toronto Public Library Yorkville branch. She was finally able to have a celebratory reception and share her portraits with the community.

Only planning to have the exhibit up for one month turned into two years of Ricci’s portraits hanging on the walls and only being able to be admired by library staff along with the occasional visitor.

On June 2, Ricci held a reception and shared her work with friends and community members where she was able to celebrate the images that she took over the last decade of her travels.

“Women of the World” will be available for viewing until the end of August.

We asked Ricci about her exhibit and passion for photojournalism.

When visitors walk through and examine the portraits, what can they expect?

“Often now, photography is so curated, especially what we’re looking at on social media. I think a lot of these images just feel raw,” says Ricci. “And so they’re not images where they have filters on them or people are really posed, they were all very natural moments, and they’re moments of people living where they live, doing regular things, like little girls on a bus going to school and laughing.”

What do you hope people will feel after they have visited your exhibit?

“I guess I just hope that it kind of transports people to the countries that the images are from, and that they think a little bit about women and like how far they've come and how far, you know, we still have to go. Maybe inspire people to travel to a different part of the world, like not all of the places that I've photographed are necessarily, you know, tourist places. In Ecuador, I did a project with Photographers Without Borders, and we were in the third poorest community in Ecuador. So it's not a place that people would normally be like, ‘I want to go check out this village.’ But maybe they would see those photos and see the importance or the draw to seeing a place that might be completely different or not on the list of tourist destinations to check off.”

“Every place that I've travelled has been amazing. Whenever I hear people talk about different countries, they're like, ‘oh, you can skip that you can, forget that city.’ I can't even understand that. It's such a privilege to be able to see any other part of the world. I would go anywhere, and I think everywhere has something to offer and something that you can learn.”

In your opinion, what makes up a good photo?

“I love using natural light. I’ve never done much studio photography, I kind of consider myself more of a documentary photographer. I think when I get someone with beautiful natural light, in an environment they’re comfortable in, it obviously helps when they’re wearing beautiful bright clothing, which happens in a lot of the images in my exhibit. You can see the people in my images feel comfortable, and I think that also makes a good photo.”

“I feel like my ability to connect with people is like my superpower. So, I think in my stories that people are comfortable, it’s not always comfortable being in front of a camera, and then I think that comes through in my photography as well that people are relaxed and they feel okay in my presence. That’s an honour to me that I can make someone feel comfortable and then that I can take a beautiful picture of them.”

One of Ricci’s favourite parts of taking portraits is being able to show a different perspective of the person that they don’t always get to see. 

“I feel sometimes people can be really critical of themselves, but with a lot of the portraits, I took in that exhibit, especially some of the areas were impoverished and they didn’t maybe get a lot of images of themselves. I would show them the picture after and they’d be like ‘wow,’ and they would really like it. I feel like when people give me the feedback that I’ve captured who they are, that makes me feel really good.”

In the future, Ricci hopes to have photography play a bigger role in her career as a journalist and combine her two passions of storytelling and imagery.

“I would like to be based in Toronto. I feel like I’m at home here, but I hope to be a national reporter that gets sent abroad and obviously, if that were the case, I would be taking a million photos.”

From staying after class to talk about photography with former instructor Peter Bregg to holding exhibits from her travels, Ricci continues to grow her career as a CBC journalist and photographer after graduating from the School of Journalism in 2012.