Midnight Ballet at the Gesù — Montréal

Marko Kulik — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:20:26 +0000

Last week I went back to my roots.
I started re-doing something that I haven’t done in quite a while because it’s difficult and time consuming. It requires research, scouting, patience, a good game plan and did I mention patience?

For the first time in a while, I set up a conceptual scene to be photographed where I used professional performers. I’ve always been a huge fan of photographs that tell or suggest stories and when I want to make my story super-clear and the story involves people, once in a while I trade posing for prints or as in this case, I simply hire people. I have been doing this on and off for close to two decades with different subject matter and it gives me a huge thrill every time I do it. It gives you a lot more responsibility though and a lot more to focus on — and I get lost in it. In a good way.

This shoot was different than previous shoots though because I used intentional camera movement to achieve the painterly effect you see here. I directed the performers to move in a way that suited this technique at the Gesù Church/Theatre in Montreal. Each of these images was shot with a long shutter speed and very little post processing is done on these images. They are mostly captured this way in camera. Please feel free to let me know which of these three images you prefer and if these types of photographs ‘work’ for you.

Midnight Ballet in Montreal — Image I

Midnight Ballet in Montreal — Image II

Midnight Ballet in Montreal — Image III

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Our Lady of the Harbour’s Blessing

Marko Kulik — Sat, 19 May 2012 00:00:23 +0000

The Notre Dame de Bonsecours Chapel is the oldest in Old Montreal. The original chapel that used to be there was built in the mid 1600’s. Only its foundation remains. The church was rebuilt in the 1770’s and has gone through many renovations and much remodelling since then. It’s an absolutely gorgeous church both inside and out and you can actually see the inside here. The front of the church faces St. Paul street and the back of the church faces the St. Lawrence River which is one of the reasons that the church is known as the Sailor’s Church.

The decorations on the outside of the church have enthralled Montrealers and tourists for a long while. The Virgin Mary Statue at the back of the church is enormous and incredibly impressive. Montreal poet/singer Leonard Cohen referred to this statue in his song Suzanne as ‘our lady of the harbour’ and I’ve taken the liberty of borrowing a portion of that lyric as titles for these images.

Camera movement allowed me to capture ‘Our lady’ as she blesses the sailors that she watches over. Here are 2 of my favourite images of her ‘blessings’. Which one do you prefer?

Our Lady of the Harbour

Our Lady of the Harbour ll

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Marko Kulik Photography - Montreal photo tours » icm – Intentional camera movement

Midnight Ballet at the Gesù — Montréal

Our Lady of the Harbour’s Blessing