Legendary Montreal activist and renowned photographer Suzanne Girard is featured in the new group exhibition Pounding the Pavement: Montreal Street Photography at the McCord Stewart Museum.
Drawn primarily from the McCord Stewart Museum’s famed Photography collection, the Pounding the Pavement exhibition presents a history of street photography as practiced in Montreal from the 19th century to the present day, featuring more than 400 photographs by 30 photographers.
Many of Girard’s photos are now conserved in the McCord Stewart Museum’s prestigious photography collection.
The retired 25-year John Abbott College photography professor was also key in establishing several local film festivals, such as Le Festival des Films de Femmes de Montréal, Le Festival International du Cinéma Chinois, and Canada’s first and oldest LGBTQ film festival, the trailblazing image+nation.
But Girard may be best known for co-founding – with Puelo Deir – Montreal’s first Pride organization, Divers/Cité, which put Montreal on the international gay map in 1993 and established our city’s sterling reputation as an international queer destination.
Girard dedicated 22 years of her life as Divers/Cité director general and den mother where she mentored several generations of queer kids, including me, before Divers/Cité folded in 2015.
Now 75, Suzanne and I recently sat down for a candid Q&A.
What drew you to photography?
SUZANNE GIRARD: I graduated from high school the year of Expo 67. Then I did a photo course before I started CEGEP, with cameras and dark rooms. And I got the bug. It was a very active cultural period in Montreal at that time.
You also taught photography at John Abbott College.
SUZANNE GIRARD: I taught photography there for 25 years. I taught one semester during COVID before I retired. I loved teaching at John Abbott. I was also the co-chair of their Media Arts department. When Divers/Cité ended, I taught full-time.
How did you get involved with this exhibition?
SUZANNE GIRARD: I met with photography historian Zoë Tousignant who is the curator of photography at the McCord Stewart Museum. When we met I talked about the Plessisgraphe photo collective I founded with Marik Boudreau and (the late) Camille Maheux, and Zoë invited us to participate in the exhibition.
Which of your photos are in the exhibition?
SUZANNE GIRARD: It’s a series about the lesbian bar Labyris on Rue Saint-Denis that I originally photographed in 1982 for an exhibition at the Powerhouse Gallery. Labyris was a small bar where everybody knew everybody. I took photos over a couple weekends while they waited in line outside. I also did a lot of lab work because I was a lab fiend. I loved to manipulate images to the nth degree.
When I went digital I stopped all image manipulation. Can you believe it? Your famous photograph of former professional wrestler Denise “Babyface” Cassidy in her white suit standing in the doorway of her legendary downtown Montreal lesbian bar called Babyface captures an era. How did that photo happen?
SUZANNE GIRARD: It was 1979 and it was her 41st birthday. That was her birthday party. People always remember that photo. The other well-known photo happened when Denise asked me, “Can you also photograph me with my car?”
What happened to Denise Cassidy?
SUZANNE GIRARD: She was a snowbird living in Florida but apparently died in Montreal. She’s no longer with us.
Your friend, photographer Camille Maheux documented the first four years of the Divers/Cité Pride march. She was 76 when she died in the five-alarm blaze that destroyed the Édifice William-Watson-Ogilvie in Old Montreal in March 2023.
SUZANNE GIRARD: Camille was afraid of fire. It’s an unbelievable thing, to lose people like that.
Camille’s life work was also lost in that fire. Was anything saved?
SUZANNE GIRARD: She used my lab and many times left her negatives. Sometimes when she traveled she would bring me negatives and say, “Keep this for me.” Because I always had space. So I have her Divers/Cité negatives, but it’s the parade, mostly.
How do you protect your own archives?
SUZANNE GIRARD: The Plessisgraphe archives from 1976 to 1987 will be stored at the McCord Stewart Museum. And it’s not just the lesbian stuff.
Have you thought of publishing a book of your historical photos?
SUZANNE GIRARD: No, I don’t see any interest. Right now I’m concentrating on archives because of my age, and because a lot of my friends are going.
Has photography been cheapened by social media?
SUZANNE GIRARD: No. If anything, photography has been heightened because of social media. It’s become more accessible. Everybody likes to take photos. It’s fun. But I also wish people would respect copyright.
Before the Gay Village moved east, there were a few lesbian bars in the old West Village downtown, such as Babyface, Jillys and Chez Madame Arthur. Do you miss the West Village?
SUZANNE GIRARD: For lesbians there never was a gay village. When the Village moved east in the 1980s, the Plateau was developed and colonized by lesbians during that era. The whole neighborhood was like that, it was like a town!
Divers/Cité put Montreal on the international queer map. It was a breakthrough and a game-changer. How proud are you of Divers/Cité’s legacy?
SUZANNE GIRARD: I think the proudest legacy for me personally are the Community Days. That’s my baby. And it has stayed. The community groups really got on board and it has a flavour unlike community days I’ve seen elsewhere, including Sydney, New York and San Francisco.
In 2012 Divers/Cité was forced to move out of the Village because the big stage on Berri Street blocked the new Gare d’autocars de Montréal. When Gérald Tremblay was mayor, the City of Montreal refused Divers/Cité’s requests to move to the Quartier des Spectacles six years in a row. They told you, “We don’t want something like that here.” Do you think the history of Pride in Montreal would be different had the city allowed Divers/Cité to move their big stage to the Quartier des Spectacles?
SUZANNE GIRARD: Pride celebrations are so tied to the Village, but because it got so big, you couldn’t do it there anymore. And it didn’t work when we moved to the Old Port. We were unlucky with the weather, and the reaction on social media was negative. Then when Divers/Cité folded in 2015, I mean, I feel like I failed. It took me a very long time – years – to get over that failure.
Divers/Cité changed the city. So I look at Divers/Cité as a victory. You were a hero and den mother for two or three generations of young queers like myself.
SUZANNE GIRARD: Sometimes I meet people in the weirdest places. I was at a Mile End grocery store when I started talking to someone I recognized in line, and this person behind us said, “You’re Suzanne! Thank you so much for what you did!” And the guy at the cash is looking at us – a bunch of gays around this woman – and when I walked out of there I almost cried.
Then I started thinking about Divers/Cité again: “Okay, what did I do wrong?” Now I know. But it’s all right. I keep saying, “Okay, I wasn’t alone.” But because I was sort of like the figurehead, you bear the brunt, right? That’s the way it was, that’s the way it is.
You’re a living legend, Suzanne. No. I’m not sitting on my laurels because I figure I don’t have any. I’m still working. It’s a question of, if you do, you got to do more.
INFOS | Photographer Suzanne Girard is featured in the group exhibition Pounding
the Pavement: Montreal Street Photography, at the McCord Stewart Museum
from April 18 to October 26.
