Culture vulture

Photographer and gallerist Ben Pobjoy adds
a punk rock edge to the business of art

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Pobjoy

by STACEY DEWOLFE

Montreal-based photographer Ben Pobjoy is a busy man, which is no surprise when you realize how many balls this 20-something wunderkind is juggling. I met with Pobjoy at the intentionally “off the beaten path” gallery that he runs with partners Shawn Butchart and Dave Arnold, both artists in their own right. The trio’s other going concern, Switzerland CS—the company they founded in Toronto some years ago as a way to bridge the gap between art and commerce, in particular, their own—provides the funding to keep the gallery running.

Pobjoy is a compelling character: notably articulate and focused, he is both passionate artist and entrepreneur; punk rock and yet willing to work with the establishment; a former socialist who travelled to Cuba as a teenager to hear Castro speak, and yet a skilled capitalist.

I asked him how he reconciles these seemingly contradictory qualities. “If you can make money out of what you love, and do it ethically—what’s the problem?” he replied. He also reasoned that it may be linked to his recent revelation that “we are our parents.” For him, this means a businessman father with an eye for photography and an artist mother who stressed the importance of creative pursuits.

Pobjoy found kindred spirits in partners Butchart and Arnold. Theorizing culture as an ATM machine in which one is “always drawing more than depositing,” the three felt the need to give back to the community that had nurtured and inspired them, and thus the Emporium Gallery was born in October 2007. Their mandate is clear: provide emerging international artists with both a venue and the infrastructure necessary to mount a professional show—promotional materials, media relations and a well-maintained Web site. The only requirement for the artist: “show up.”

Emporium Gallery also provides a venue for Pobjoy’s own work, which includes 2007’s Land of America, a photographic series taken when Pobjoy crossed the United States by bus, and his latest, working title: Father, Son and the Holy Ghost.

The project began when he discovered some photographs taken by his dad in Ireland when he was a combatant with the British army. Seeking to understand his father’s experience, and realizing the larger themes of memory, history and family, Pobjoy will travel to Northern Ireland to photograph the same locations. The show, to be supplemented by a book of interviews with the elder Pobjoy, opens in September 2009.