Whatever happend to John Max?

Claire Senft said:

He formed a rap group and has been using the stagename Tmax. Sorry the devil made me do it.

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mhv said:

You silly geese... Anybody checked his pictures, at least?

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Michel Hardy-Vallée said:

Dear former 2006-era self,

I thought you would be interested in knowing that for the last few years, I've been working on answering your question in the only way possible: doing a PhD about it.

I would be glad to see you at my defence, this Tuesday 11 June 2019, after eight years of research and writing.

I've included a flier, hope to see you there,

Cheers!View attachment 223053

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Hilo said:

His book Open Passport from the early seventies is one of photography's gems: original and honest photography. With Danny Seymour's A Loud Song and Dave Heath's A Dialogue with Solitude one of my favorites

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DonJ said:

View attachment 223097

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Michel Hardy-Vallée said:

He might be obscure now, but in the 60s and the 70s, he was one of Canada's most important art photographer, worked at the NFB stills department during its heydays, went to Japan on a grant, was buddy with Leonard Cohen, but the last I've seen of him was the fact that he was going to be evicted from his flat in 2003. It seems as if he may have experienced some mental illness, and his life gradually collapsed.

Here's a gallery online that was representing him in some official way, it seems, but they haven't updated much since 2004 :

Dead Link Removed

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Michel Hardy-Vallée said:

It's become a tradition for me every time I do something important about John Max to announce it, so here's one for the ages: I have put together an original photobook from his archives, which has just been released in Québec City by VU. Texts in French and in English.

Basically, it's five different sequences that tell the story of different kinds of artists in Montréal at the end of the 1950s. You have literature, painting, music, cinema, and photography. Some famous names like Leonard Cohen, Armand Vaillancourt (save the Fountain, SF!) or Alanis Obomsawin, and some much less famous ones as well.

John Max took a lot of photographs of artists in those days, and they give a rare glimpse into the actual artistic life of the city. Not just as a series of headshots, but as actual lived-in reportage.

It would be my greatest honour for you to buy it, which you may do here:

https://vuphoto.org/fr/product/premieres-planches-photos-de-john-max/#tab-description

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Alex Benjamin said:

Is there a store in Montreal where I can get it?

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Michel Hardy-Vallée said:

I’m not sure yet which bookstore will carry it, but it’s distributed by Dimedia and you can already buy it on the page I linked to.

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aconbere said:

@Michel Hardy-Vallée went looking around today and ran into your trailer for the movie you made with an interview between you and John? Do you know if this is distributed anywhere? I enjoyed the little interaction and would happily watch the whole film.

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Michel Hardy-Vallée said:

You're probably thinking of another Michel (Lamothe), who directed a movie about him, which you can rent here:

JOHN MAX, A PORTRAIT - Les Films du 3 Mars

Synopsis Né à Montréal, John Max (1936-2011) étudie la musique à l’Université McGill. Après un an, il abandonne l’idée de devenir musicien et la photographie devient pour lui sa passion. Malgré l’ampleur de son oeuvre et son rayonnement dans les années 1960 et 1970, John Max demeure à ce jour un...

f3m.ca

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