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Lesley MacGregor
Lesley MacGregor is a Canadian art photographer whose work explores memory, perception, and time. Working at the intersection of landscape, architecture, and abstraction, she creates images that feel remembered rather than seen.
Michéla Griffith
In 2012 I paused by my local river and everything changed. I’ve moved away from what many expect photographs to be: my images deconstruct the literal and reimagine the subjective, reflecting the curiosity that water has inspired in my practice. Water has been my conduit: it has sharpened my vision, given me permission to experiment and continues to introduce me to new ways of seeing.
Creative interests invariably circle around us; even when art is a part of family life, it doesn’t always follow that it persists—we may detour into academic study and professional life before returning to our early passions. When an analytical mind meets a childhood love of abstract expressionism, the results can be very interesting indeed. Lesley MacGregor deconstructs and reassembles experiences of place, drawing on the ephemeral nature of perception and memory. Her portfolio invites you to leave the literal behind and to walk through modern architecture and minimalist landscapes into a quiet, luminous place where time is an inherent part of experience and the resulting prints map the mind’s direction of travel.
Would you like to start by telling readers a little about yourself – where you grew up, what your early interests were, and what you went on to do?
I came from a family where art was an essential part of life. There was “Art” - which belonged in galleries and exhibitions - and there was “art” - which was a visual language spoken every day. My Dad was both an artist and a professor of art education. As a result, art was part of the fabric of living … painting on bits of board on a Saturday afternoon, playing with a lump of clay, or talking about the way the shadows played on the wall in the sunshine. Of course, we also explored museums and galleries where we were told stories, not just about the art, but about the artists themselves, their challenges, and the context of their lives. Art was something that was woven through our lives in a very natural way.
As I got older, I moved into more academic pursuits and, eventually, a wide-ranging career. During this time, there was always a creative element in what I did, but my artistic hobbies fell by the wayside. I came to photography later in life when I had more time for a creative pursuit.
I have loved abstract expressionist art and modern architecture since I was a child. I have also always been interested in patterns, connections, and ideas. And I’m fascinated by memory, perception, and the elusive world of our minds. Photography draws all those interests together. It is creative, analytical and reflective. These tensions appeal to me.
What prompted you to pick up a camera and shaped the direction you took?
It was the black and white long exposure photography of David Burdeny that encouraged me to pick up a camera. While this genre is now ubiquitous, I’d never seen anything like it, and I wanted to know how to capture the stillness and silence, photograph the unseen, change the hard edges of reality into something more ephemeral. While I don’t do traditional long exposure work now, my interest in portraying stillness and showing the unseen has continued.
Eddies in the Fog
As my photography evolved, I had two major influences. First, I discovered the minimal black and white architectural work of Joel Tjintjelaar and began a mentorship with him that has continued ever since. He helped me understand architectural photography, gave me tools to hone my photography, and encouraged me to find my own voice.
My other influence was Bruce Percy’s luminous minimal landscapes, which reveal the geometric forms and tonal variants of the natural world. I have travelled around the world with Bruce, and every time I am with him, I learn new ways to see. I owe a huge debt to both Joel and Bruce for helping me see the world differently.
From a subject perspective, my work started with modern architecture and minimal landscape photography. Beautiful modern buildings in urban settings always speak to me, as do wild open landscapes.
As time went on, I realized I was less concerned about the literal subject being photographed and more interested in how I could use it as a metaphor to explore other ideas. My goal is to create photographs that feel like thoughts, slightly untethered from the real world.