Phil Bergerson releases retrospective of his images depicting American life
Since the late ’80s, Phil Bergerson has been photographing America in an effort to capture collective themes in people’s lives. His third monograph, a retrospective of his life’s work to date, also remembers his days at Ryerson as both student and professor. Photo taken in New York, New York, in 2018. Courtesy of Phil Bergerson.
“It’s been said that the average millennial will take about 25,000 selfies in their lifetime (external link) ,” says alumnus and Professor Emeritus Phil Bergerson. “So photographs are just flying through people, and yet I’m sort of in the realm of trying to slow down and contemplate what’s actually there.” In putting together his third monograph, Bergerson has spent time reliving his 50-year career, as well as his work as a Ryerson student. The result, Phil Bergerson: A Retrospective (external link) , is something of a love story to Ryerson and the passion he developed here as a student.
A prominent figure in Canadian photography, Bergerson has been photographing and exhibiting internationally for over 35 years. His work can be found in many significant public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. His photographs have been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine as well as in Toronto Life and The Walrus. And on February 25 (external link) , he’ll return (virtually) to his old stomping grounds in the School of Image Arts for an evening book launch and roundtable discussion.
Bergerson’s book shares some of the work he’s most known for: his portraits of American life and culture, and features essays about his time at Ryerson and beyond.
Staying passionate
To celebrate his work, Bergerson will be joined by Peter Higdon, the founding curator of the Mira Godard Study Centre, which would become the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC) Collection and Professor Emeritus Don Snyder - both of whom contributed to the monograph. “The monograph represents 50 years of my career, and it’s also a great achievement for the faculty and staff and students of Ryerson, because many of the people involved in it have a connection to Ryerson,” he says.
“I’ve been reconnected with a number of students I taught who have graduated and are teaching around the world themselves. And when they refer to my teaching, it is never the specific details of something that I taught them that they recount, but the passion that I had for what I was doing. They carried that with them and there they are, out in the world being passionate themselves about whatever it is that they're doing.”
Photo taken in Riviera, Texas, in 2006.
Bergerson says that hearing these stories from past students has reminded him of the importance of passion - especially in times like these. “You can be in a room alone with some pictures or alone making photographs and find that there is incredible engagement with just being a human being,” he says. “The process of making a picture is like trying to understand who you are.”
Now 73 years old, Bergerson says he’s still having fun taking photos. “I'm exhibiting and I'm putting together books, and it’s the joy of my life, and I feel very lucky that I have the medium of photography to look at the world; it just keeps life rich and fulfilling.”
New York, New York, October 2001 (taken three weeks after September 11th).
Taken in Pocatello, Idaho, in 2007. This photograph appeared on the cover of Bergerson’s second book, American Artifacts, 2014 with essays by Margaret Atwood and Nathan Lyons.
Bergerson’s work is also showing at the Stephen Bulger Gallery (external link) in Toronto.
The book launch and roundtable will take place on Thursday, February 25 from 7-8:30 pm. To attend, RSVP via the event page. (external link)
