Whatever the instrument in his hands, Perron knows how to be true and authentic.
With his finger on the trigger, he succeeds in sharing with us a climate, an atmosphere,
a sensation, a fragility, a temperament, an experience, a passion or a happiness.
John R. Porter, 1998.
Born in Montreal on July 6, 1924, Maurice Perron developed an early interest in photography. He was only 11 when he borrowed his mother’s camera, a small Kodak Brownie, and quickly acquired a taste for the art. At first, he photographed almost exclusively outdoors, as there were no adjustments on this camera.
In 1943, he and his childhood friend Jean-Paul Riopelle left the École des hautes études commerciales to study at the École du meuble de Montréal. It was there that they met Paul-Émile Borduas, then Marcel Barbeau and Pierre Gauvreau, friends Perron would keep for the rest of his life. He was only 23 when, faced with publishers’ refusals to publish his work, he decided to found Les éditions Mithra-Mythe to publish the Refus global manifesto, of which he was also one of the signatories, and which contained 17 of his photographs. His publishing house would later publish Le vierge incendié by Paul-Marie Lapointe and Projections libérantes by Paul-Émile Borduas.
Perron was a member of the Automatist group until the mid-50s, and devoted himself assiduously to photography. As places of knowledge and memory, his photographs express a personal vision that embraces the particular qualities of a time and place. His work has been, and continues to be, exhibited in Quebec, Canada and Europe. The innovative and personal character of his work has been praised in several books, notably those by Serge Allaire, Gilles Lapointe and Jean-François Nadeau.
Maurice Perron died in Saint-Agathe des Monts on February 27, 1999. His archive is preserved at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and his work continues to shine forth, for through his lens, it was a vision of Quebec that he revealed and chose to bring to light.
Sources: “Interview with Maurice Perron” by Nathalie DEBLOIS, and “Présences de Maurice Perron” by John R. Porter in “Maurice Perron.Photographies”, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, 1998; Serge ALLAIRE, ‘Un photographe chez les automatistes’, 1998.
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec page