BIO
In his practice, Michel Huneault combines documentary photography and visual art. Committed to a personal and collaborative approach, he often brings together still images, oral histories and immersive elements in his work.
Before devoting himself to photography, he worked in international development for more than a decade as a researcher, analyst and project manager. That first career took him to more than 20 countries, including Afghanistan, where he spent an entire year in Kandahar. Michel has a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of California Berkeley, where he was a Peace Fellow studying the role of collective memory after large-scale traumatic events. Along the way, he studied under and assisted Magnum photographer Gilles Peress at Berkeley and in New York City.
Now a decade into his art practice, Michel Huneault’s interest in development, trauma, migration, climate change - and other geographically complex realities - remains just as strong today. His projects are developed in chapters over a period of several years, and are presented through complementary platforms ranging from contemporary art spaces to traditional media to academic publications and conferences.
His project on the Lac-Mégantic oil train explosion disaster received the 2014 Portfolio Review Exhibition Award from CONTACT, the 2015 Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies of Duke University, was published in 2016 by Schilt as his first bilingual monograph (The Long Night of Mégantic), and was nominated for the Prix Pictet 9 : Fire in 2021. In 2016, the Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship enabled him to deepen his research on migratory issues. The same year, his project Post Tohoku, on the effects of the tsunami in Japan, was nominated for the Prix Pictet 7 and received a Prix Antoine-Désilets. In 2017, with the National Film Board of Canada, he created a virtual reality adaption of his photographic and binaural sound project Roxham, which documents realities of asylum seekers crossing from the USA to Canada. Roxham VR was first exhibited in 2018 at PHI Center in Montréal and at the Rencontres d’Arles. In spring and summer 2020, he has been mandated by the McCord Museum to document Covid-19's impacts in Montréal, the results were presented as a solo exhibition by the Museum in 2022-23. His recent projet Péninsule, on the representation of climate change on Québec’s shore line, is now being adapted as a VR experience with the art center Sporobole.
Michel's work has been shown in various venues including in Canada, France, Germany, UK, USA, Japan and the Netherlands. He lives in Montreal and is a regular grantee of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
CV
EDUCATION
2004 Grad. Certificate, Peace and Conflict Resolution, UC Berkeley, USA.
2004 Master's degree in Latin American Studies, UC Berkeley, USA.
2002 Grad.Diploma, Études francophones, Université Montpellier III, France.
2001 B.Sc., Communication Sciences, Université de Montréal, Canada.
VISUAL TRAINING
2012/13 Apprentice w/ Geneviève Perron (DoP), Montréal, Canada.
2004 Apprentice w/ Gilles Peress, Magnum Photo, NYC, USA.
2004 Student/assist. w/ G.Peress, Human Rights and Photography, UC Berkeley, USA.
EXHIBITIONS – SOLO (selection)
2023 Péninsule, Rimouski Museum, Rimouski, Canada.
2023 4 Hours, centre TOPO, Montréal, Canada.
2018-23 Roxham VR : Rencontres d'Arles (France), Miami Film Gate/Art Basel (USA), Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma (Can), FIPADOC (France), Open City Doc (UK), Camden International Film Festival (USA), Fantasia (Can), ATSA (Can), DOK.Fest (Germany), Loturak (Spain), Nuit Blanche (Canada).
2022 Péninsule, Gaspésie Museum, Gaspé, Canada.
2022 Incipit Covid-19, McCord Museum, Montreal, Canada.
2022 Vertige : 10 new walls of Tohoku, PFOAC, Montreal, Canada.
2021 De la frontière/On the Border, Topo, Montreal, Canada.
2020 Roxham, Centre Adélard, Frelighsburg, Canada.
2019 Roxham, Maison du développement durable/UNHCR, Montreal, Can.
2019 Occident Express, Maison de la Culture Ahuntsic, Montreal, Canada.
2018 Roxham, Photobook Week, Aarhus, Denmark.
2018 Roxham, AKA/Dunlop, Saskatoon/Regina, Canada.
2018 Roxham, PHI Center, Montréal, Canada.
2017 Intersection/Roxham, Circuit Gallery@PREFIX, Toronto, Canada.
2017 Post Tohoku, Rencontre photographique du Kamouraska, Canada.
2016 Post Mégantic, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke Uni, USA.
2016 Occident Express, Maison du développement durable, Montréal, Can.
2016 Views from Tohoku, Biennale Images Vevey, Vevey, Switzwerland.
2016 La longue nuit de Mégantic, Gallery Tanto Tempo, Kobe, Japan.
2016 Vues de Tohoku, Rencontres int. de la photo en Gaspésie, Canada.
2016 Post Tohoku, LABO@Campbell House Museum, Toronto, Canada.
2015 10 minutes at Tohoku, Galerie Pierre-François Ouellette, MTL, Canada.
2015 La longue nuit de Mégantic, Médiathèque Nelly-Arcan, Lac-Mégantic.
2015 La longue nuit de Mégantic, CONTACT Gallery, Toronto, Canada.
2014 La longue nuit de Mégantic, Maison de la culture Rosemont, Montréal.
2014 Water Memories, Beit Zatoun center, Contact Photo, Toronto, Canada.
2014 Contamination + Addiction, MDD, Montréal, Canada.
2013 La mémoire de l’eau, MDD, Montréal, Canada.
2012 Water Memories, Noorderlicht PF, Museum Van Haren, Netherlands.
2011 Histoires normales, Oriel Gallery, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Wales/UK.
2011 Histoires normales, Aberystwyth Art Center, Wales/UK.
EXHIBITIONS – COLLECTIVE (selection)
2023 Swaying Calmly, Gazing Quietly, Tokyo Arts and Space/Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan.
2023 Points de rencontres, Adélard, Frelighsburg, Canada.
2019 Arts of One World, Fine Arts Museum, Montréal, Canada.
2018 Le territoire I, La Castiglione gallery, Montréal, Canada.
2018 Uncertain Times, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, USA.
2017 Heading North : a Canadian Photography, Rencontres photo. de Guyane.
2017 Balade pour la paix, Fine Arts Museum, Montréal, Canada.
2017 HOSHANO : penser l'après Fukushima, Visual Voice, Montréal, Canada.
2017 Investigations, Centre VU, Québec, Canada.
2016/17 10 Minutes at Tohoku, IkonoTV, Berlin, Germany/Morocco.
2016 10 Minutes at Tohoku, Vidéoformes Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
2015 Jury's projection, Prix Maison Blanche, Marseille, France.
2015 Identités, Rencontres intl. de la photographie en Gaspésie, Canada.
2014 Photoforum, Galerie Les territoires, Montreal, Canada.
2014 10 minutes at Tohoku , La bande vidéo, Québec, Canada
2014 Contamination+Addiction, in Chromatic 2014, Montreal, Canada.
2013 La longue nuit de Mégantic, Zoom Photofestival, Saguenay, Canada.
2013 Attesting Resistance, curated online exhibition, Canada.
2011 Awichas, Canadian Embassy in Bolivia, La Paz, Bolivia.
2010 HOST @ Crane Kalman - The Foto8 Awards Show, Brighton, UK.
2010 Foto8 Summershow, Host Gallery, London, UK.
BOOK
2016 The Long Night of Mégantic, Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
COLLECTIONS
McCord Museum, Montreal, Canada.
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada.
Archive of Documentary Arts, Duke University, USA.
Borden Ladner Gervais, Montreal, Canada.
ACCOLADES
2021 Nominated for Prix Pictet 9 : Fire, UK.
2019 Shortlisted for Vevey Image Book Award, Switzerland.
2019 Final round of judging, best Interactive work, World Press Photo.
2018 Finalist for best VR work, Rencontres d’Arles, France.
2018 Nominated for the Tim Hetherington Trust's Visionary Award, USA.
2018 Nominated for a Magnum Foundation Grant, USA.
2015/17 Shortlisted for Vevey Award, Switzerland.
2016 Nominated for Prix Pictet 7 : Space, UK.
2016 Prix Antoine-Désilets, Canada.
2016 R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship, Canada.
2014/16 New York Portfolio Review, selected, USA.
2015 Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize, USA.
2015 Review Santa Fe 100, CENTER, selected, USA.
2014 Portfolio Review Exhibition Award, CONTACT Festival, Canada.
2014 CDS/Honickman First Book Prize, shortlisted, USA.
2010 FOTO8 Award, UK.
2010 Photolife Emerging Photographer, Canada.
2010 Applied Arts Award, Photojournalism, Canada.
2010 Leica Fotografie International, Top 50 in 35 mm competition, Germany.
2009 LUX Award, Humanitarian Cause, Canada.
2009 Honorable mention, Prix de la Photographie de Paris/PX3, France.
ARTS GRANTS, MISSIONS AND RESIDENCIES
2010-2024 Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Canada Arts Council (multiple grants).
2024 Art residency at Tenjinyama Art Studio, Sapporo, Japan.
2023-24 Art residency at Sporobole, Sherbrooke, Canada.
2020/23 Art residencies at Chiyoda 3331, Tokyo, Japan.
2022 Art residency at Bitamine Faktoria/TOPO, Basque country.
2021 Centre VU (Book development/residency grant), Québec city, Canada.
2020 Residency-Immersion at Adélard, Frelighsburg, Canada.
2020 Mission Covid-19, McCord Museum, Montréal, Canada.
2020 Residency at Arts Chiyoda 3331, Tokyo, Japon.
2020 Art residency at Natsukashii Mirai Sozo, Rikuzen Takata, Japon.
2017 Art residency at Tokyo Wonder Site/TOKAS, Tokyo, Japan.
2014/16 Production residency, Centre Sagamie, Canada.
2013-15 SODEC, Canada.
2015 Art residency at Salzamt, Linz, Austria.
2014 Art residency with FONCA, Mexico City, Mexico.
2010 Art residency at Aberystwyth Art Center, Wales/UK.
ACADEMIC GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2002/04 World Peace Fellowship, Rotary International, USA.
2003 Center for Latin American Studies, UC Berkeley, USA.
2003 Berkeley Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley, USA.
RECENT PUBLICATION
The National Film Board of Canada, GEO, Prefix, Relations, Le Devoir, The Financial Times, The Guardian Magazine, New York Times, TIME, British Journal of Photography, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Photo District News, Wired, GUP, Médiapart, TV5, Fisheye, Vice, Japan Times, Le Monde, LFI, L'Actualité, La Presse, The Toronto Star, Macleans, SRC/CBC, Blackflash, TFO, Geist, Nouveau Projet, Québec Science, Internazionale, Polka, Leica Fotografie International, Maisonneuve, Ciel Variable.
Country Experience
Afghanistan
Argentina
Bangladesh
Bolivia
Chile
Costa Rica
Cuba
Egypt
El Salvador
Guatemala
Guinea
Haiti
Honduras
India
Japan
Mexico
Morocco
Nepal
Palestine (West Bank)
Senegal
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Viet-Nam
North America
Europe + Balkans.