Known for his use of bright colours, this Canadian photographer has had exhibitions in Europe, the US and across Canada. The 17 photos on display were mostly from Times Square and Las Vegas, with two photos from Warsaw, Poland and one from Montreal. Some of the photos in this exhibition were also presented in Walker’s 2002 book, Color is Power.

The full frame of these brightly coloured photos sometimes makes it hard to determine the true subject, yet at the same time, it is this ambiguity that draws the viewer in and confronts them with the overload of visual information and advertisements in everyday life.

“I think it’s a great work about colour and composition in a formal way,” said Andrée Anne Vien, a co-coordinator at the McClure Gallery. “And it’s a good witness to our contemporary world and our relationship with publicity.”

In addition to these eye-catching colours and unique subject matter, the compositional elements in the frame give these photos a sense of humor.

“A lot of these photos made me smile, said Louise Rochette, an NDG resident, “It was the superimposition of the situations that was really funny.”

Walker lived and photographed in New York from 1978 to 1988. Referring to Times Square as his own back yard, the photographer compared his excitement of photographing the area to “Monet going to the gardens of Giverny to paint his water lilies.”

Originally a painter, Walker borrowed from his painting tradition to compose his photos more symbolically and abstractly, while considering all dimensions of the frame. “I look at them as pure abstraction and balance it as though I’m doing an abstract picture. I think that’s really the trick.”

Walker is also well known for using bright colours in his work. “The colors I used were always primary colours. Bright reds, bright greens, bright yellows, and that was sort of my personal palette.”

The photos of Times Square directly engage with this invasive imagery, using bright colors and a particular style of framing and composition, which both overwhelms and entices the viewer to try and make sense of what they are seeing. With the same token, the photos act as a wake up call, rendering viewers conscious of the commercial nature of Times Square.

“They’ve killed Times Square over the last 10 years,” said Walker, “They’ve completely destroyed it and made it corporate. It has no more soul to it. But it’s still visually very interesting with lots of electronic imagery.”

The photos of Las Vegas take less of a direct approach toward confronting commercialism. Choosing to be more subtle and humorous, Walker photographs replica monuments such as the Sphinx, the Eiffel Tower and well-known symbols like the water taxis of Venice or roller coasters in New York as they appear in Las Vegas. At first glance the viewer can easily mistake these scenes for the actual location. But the subtle clues and humorous juxtapositions in the frame help the viewer see that things aren’t what they seem.

By choosing to photograph these images in a particular manner, Walker attempts to manipulate the message of the original image to challenge their invasiveness.

“It’s a way of fighting back against all the intrusive imagery. You don’t see it so much here, but in the States it’s much more intrusive and you know like being shouted at and yelled at. This is one way of dealing with it in your own way and giving it back to them. Mixing it up in ways that they did not intend for it to look like that it subverts it in a sense.”

Besides fighting back against the system through art, Walker really enjoys hearing about the impact of his work.

“Many people have told me that they see things differently from looking at my pictures, it just gives them another way of looking at the world, which is the greatest compliment I can have, you know.”

Robert Walker lives and works in Montreal. He published his first book, New York Inside Out, in 1984. His work has been shown nationally and internationally and is represented in many public and private collections.