Frugal Film Project – October 2024 – Vieux Montreal

I love doing fall vacations; it’s often outside the peak tourist season, and the weather is manageable. This year, my family and I decided to go back to Montreal. The city holds a special spot in my heart because it was one of the first paid vacation I took solo and where I finally figured out how I like to take photos and compose images. As a family vacation, my primary reason was for something other than photography. But there is always room to bring a camera (or three) for the ride.

The modern city of Montreal sits on the largest island in an archipelago at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. Many names have known the island. The Anishinaabe named it Mooniyaang during their great migration at the end of the last great ice age as they travelled from the Maritimes to the Great Lakes. The Mohawk named the island Tiohtià:ke tsi ionhwéntsare or Broken in Two, a reference to a series of rapids on the southern shore. For 8,000 years, the island was home to many different Indigenous peoples, but permanent settlement started around 1000CE when a group of Iroquois established a permanent settlement and grew into a distinct culture, the St. Lawrence Iroquois and even a distinct language known as Laurentian. These were the people Jacques Cartier first encountered at Stadacona in 1534 and then on 2 October 1535 at Hochelaga on the island. The name Hochelaga was given to the village by Cartier and came from the more accurate word osekare meaning beaver path or dam, but more likely osheaga meaning big rapids. While Cartier continued, the indigenous population in the area began to decline through the introduction of illnesses, violence and being pushed out by the Mohawks from the south. The village was gone when Samuel de Champlain came through the region in 1608. Champlain would name the island Lille de Vilmenon and establish a small fur trading post at Place Royal; it would not last long, and by 1611, it was all but abandoned due to increased violence by the local Indigenous peoples. It wasn’t until 1639 that a permanent settlement began to form on the now-renamed Isle de Mont-real by Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière. The arrival of Société Notre-Dame de Montréal missionaries Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance saw the creation of Ville-Marie on 17 May 1642; Mance would go on to establish the first hospital, Hôtel-Dieu, in 1644, the first hospital north of Mexico. Many saw this as a foolish endeavour, and it nearly became one as increased violence as the Beaver Wars ramped up and reduced the population to only fifty souls by 1651. Maisonneuve returned to France, dedicated to recruiting more settlers, and he returned in 1653 to save the community. Among the new arrivals was Marguerite Bourgeoys, who arrived to serve as a teacher. She founded Montreal’s first school that year and the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, which mainly became a teaching order. In 1663, the Sulpician seminary became the new Seigneur of the island and, in 1672, constructed the Notre-Dame Church. They would fortify and hold on until 1701, when the Great Peace was signed, ensuring the expansion of settlement on the island and surrounding area. While the treaty ensured peace and allowed for expansion, the island has never officially been ceded by the Indigenous peoples to France, Britain or Canada. Ville Marie fortified itself in 1725 and quickly became the centre of the fur trade throughout New France. Its position on the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers put it at the centre of two major commerce routes. The French-Indian War would rattle New France, and the swift campaign would bring Quebec City under British control in 1759 when faced with a massed army, Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial, chose to surrender to Jeffery Amherst in 1760.

British control of New France was established in 1763 under the 1763 Treaty of Paris terms, ending the Seven Years’ War. Montreal would be briefly occupied in 1775 by an invading army of American rebels, but they soon realised they could not hold the city or the Province of Quebec. Under British rule, Montreal quickly became an economic powerhouse in British North America and, by 1789, boasted a population of 5,500 people. Many businesses would find homes in Montreal, including Molson Brewery, which opened in 1786. The opening of the Lachine Canal in 1825 further improved navigation into and out of the Port of Montreal and spurred the city’s rapid growth; by 1832, Montreal was incorporated as a city. In 1844, Montreal was named the new capital of the United Province of Canada, and the birth of a responsible government was witnessed in the passage of the Rebellion Losses Act, passed after a great deal of debate. The passage sparked a series of riots that destroyed the St. Anne Market building that served as the legislature in 1849.The 1850s brought significant changes; the capital was relocated to Toronto, and Montreal was opened up to grow into Canada’s foremost centre of culture and economy. Rapid industrialisation and the railways transformed the city into the centre of culture and industry in Canada, and within a decade, it was the largest city in British North America. National and international companies, including Grand Trunk, Canadian Pacific, and the Royal Bank, would build their headquarters in Montreal. The 1860s marked the start of the city’s golden age. The decade also marked the completion of the grand Notre-Dame Basilica in 1865; construction started in 1823. The turn of the century brought further growth, and in the interwar period, the notoriety was Sin City as many Americans would come to drink and gamble. Because the city was at the centre of commerce, the great depression of the 1930s brought a massive crash and ended the golden age. The city became home to the world’s first commercial radio station and even a mooring mast for airships (a means of commercial air travel that never caught on). Cars also began to reshape how the city moved, often resulting in traffic concerns through the old city with its small, narrow streets. The new century also saw the city expand beyond the port, although this was less sharply felt in the post-war era when the downtown moved away from the old city and the old port. Through the 1960s, Montreal became the focus of a quiet revolution which saw many Francophones open up new businesses and get involved with politics at all levels of government. The Old City became a focus of a new urban renewal scheme headed by Daniel van Ginkel, who would be the name attached to preserving the old city that preserved the 19th-century buildings from planned demolition to accommodate a raised expressway. By 1964, the district gained historical designation. The greatest improvement of the city’s infrastructure came during this period in preparation for Expo ’67, which saw a brand new subway system to help move people around the city and the construction of several buildings and locations that still stand today. Another iconic Montreal landmark came in 1976, with Montreal hosting the Summer Olympics and the Big O or Olympic Stadium. Thankfully, all the efforts made through the 1960s and 1970s managed to preserve Old Montreal and brought a great deal of vibrance to the historic district starting in the 1990s, and even the economic decline did not impact the city as heavily as other parts of Canada. In 2002, at the heels of the amalgamation of the City of Toronto, Montreal was unified with the twenty-seven additional municipalities to form the Montreal Urban Community. The move proved unpopular, and by 2006, fifteen of those municipalities regained some level of independence but still formed the Montreal Metropolitan Area. Today, the city has a population of 1.7 million, and the overall metro area population is 4.3 million.

The one thing about Montreal is how big the place is, and having only twenty-five frames, I needed to choose where to focus my efforts. Having three full days in the city, I wanted to avoid carrying the 3000 with me each day, but instead, I used it in one specific spot and got the roll done that day. Besides, I also had the D750, Rolleiflex and Holga along for the ride, and the Holga ended up being the daily carry. That also meant I needed the area that would yield the most shots that I would like, and that ended up being Old Montreal, which is also where the title came from. And because I love the area so much, I cut the history section in half to tag five more photos. I’m also happy I went with a narrower field of view, as I had my ultra-wide lenses on my digital kit. Of course, I only got to see some of the old city as I would have liked; a whole section to the west got missed, as well as some of the smaller side streets. But like any photography combined with a family vacation, it is subject to the requirements of the service, and the narrow streets and sidewalks with other pedestrians made navigating a stroller difficult. But in the end, I’m happy with the cross-section I got and ended up scanning most of the roll, which a majority are included in this post.

The obvious choice for this subject matter would be to stick with the 28-80mm lens and stay at that 28mm focal length. But then I looked back at some of my older photos from my first trip to Montreal and saw what I could get from the 105mm lens. Now, I don’t have a short telephoto/portrait lens for my EOS kit, I do have the 28-105mm, but at 105mm, it is slow for the narrow streets of Old Montreal. But what about the 50mm lens? I got this idea a week before the trip and decided to run with it, and I’m happy with that choice. I try my best to avoid duplicating developers throughout the project, but in this case, I went back to 510-Pyro, I did use this combination back in January, but I found that the negatives were far too dense for my taste, and it took a bit of work to pull out good images. This time, I found another time, a straight six minutes, and a note saying that it was for less density. After pulling the negatives from the tank, I saw some beautiful results and excellent staining. And the scans turned out beautifully.

I will always have a soft spot for Montreal. It is a fun and vibrant city that differs from what we have here in Toronto. Compared to Quebec City, Montreal, Old Montreal has a different vibe. And while I only spent three days here, I’m happy with that time and cannot wait to return in a few years. I need to get to Quebec City again first. You can check out all my photos from my trip over on Flickr! And finally, next month, I’ll be taking you to Westfield Heritage Village, another living history museum (and a favourite), celebrating a significant milestone anniversary this year!