Alberta gallery hosting photographic exhibition called ‘Falling Through the Cracks’

A look into the inspiration behind Medicine Hat artist Wes Bell's new photography exhibit Falling Through the Cracks. Kevin Fleming reports.

For the month of June the Alberta Society of Artists is hosting an exhibition called ‘Falling Through the Cracks’ featuring black and white photos of cracks in asphalt.

Wes Bell, a Medicine Hat artist, put the collection together.

The title comes from a medical event he experienced in 2019 when he thought he had a heart attack.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

After five visits to the emergency room, doctors couldn’t pinpoint the cause of his pain.

A few months later the pain returned and Bell learned it was due to complications with his gallbladder.

“I sat down with the doctor, the ER doctor and he looked at my numbers and that’s when he said ‘you could have died, I’m sorry but you fell through the cracks’,” said Bell.

It took Bell three months to recover after surgery and while out walking to build up his strength, he looked down.

“And I saw this major crack,” he said. “It reminded me of the scar on my abdomen and from that, things just grew and later that summer I started researching and hunting for these cracks.”

Bell spent more than 20 years as a fashion photographer, moving to Milan, Italy in 1986 and then later to New York City.

“I worked for fashion editorial for magazines, major magazines; British GQ, British Esquire, the New York Times Magazine,” he said.

“Interestingly, most of them were color photographs, now my personal work is all black and white.”

Bell says the economic crash in 2008 saw advertising dollars dry up and his career with it. He became depressed and went back to school.

“I ended up taking five classes of history of photography, ” he said. And from that grew my passion for art photography, all of a sudden I was focusing on things that meant more.”

The exhibit at ASA has received good reviews from visitors since it opened according to Chawna Exner, program coordinator.

“It’s really nice that it’s been here during Mental Health Month,” she said. “Because his work has a lot to say about mental health and I personally really resonate with that and I think a lot of people also really resonate with that.”

Exner says the gallery is focused on local, Alberta professional artists and giving them a platform along with providing a space where they can educate the public about their work.

“When I look back at my career in fashion, I was known for detail and driving people crazy on detail and here I am out photographing cracks, again looking for detail,” he said. “And if I sharing my vulnerability, that would be the reward that somebody else benefited from it.”

The ASA Gallery is on the second floor of the Crossroads Market in southeast Calgary and the ‘Falling Through the Cracks’ exhibition runs through until June 26.

Learn more about Bell here: www.wesbellphoto.com/fine-art.