Maureen is a life-long animal lover and the photographs from the Threshold series are produced with the cooperation of local sanctuaries and zoos. The animals are photographed on location in the abandoned dwellings with the greatest care and respect for these wonderful creatures.

These images are photographed traditionally with film.

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By photographing Canadian animals in abandoned and crumbling domestic architecture, Maureen O’Connor raises questions about how nature and the built environment intersect. She sees these spaces as transformative, evoking memory and showing the beauty and fragility of the animals and the architecture. While the juxtaposition may appear odd, her images convey a sense of calm, and have a fairy tale like quality.
 

We are invited to cross the threshold and imagine new narratives where the natural world and the domestic world meet, and consider how this informs our identity in a country defined by both its wild landscape and its orderly cities.

 

Maureen O’Connor is a fine art photographer living in Toronto and is a graduate of Ontario College of Art & Design. Currently a temporary installation of images from the Threshold series is on view at the Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 3. The installation is on view from June 2015-June 2018.

Maureen has most presently won 2017 Most Innovative Work Award and 2016 Best Photography Award at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.
In 2014 Maureen was awarded a Visual Arts Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Maureen O’Connor’s work is on exhibition at the AGO with AGO art rental + sales gallery. Maureen’s photographs are in numerous private collections and she sells her work through Aperture Contemporary in Europe.

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