HOLDING THE MAIN / TENDRE LA MAIN Format: Hardcover

In 1987, "The Main: Portrait of a Neighborhood" celebrated tolerance and the urban immigrant experience around Montreal's Boulevard Saint Laurent. This 2025 reimagining investigates belonging, identity, memory and the evolving photobook in a globalized world. Text in English and French.

In 1987, The Main: Portrait of a Neighborhood (9781550130461) was published and quickly sold out. The critically acclaimed project celebrated the communities around Montreal’s Boulevard Saint Laurent and contributed to the eventual designation of “The Main” as a Canadian heritage landmark.

In 2017, to celebrate the city’s 375th anniversary, the author was invited to re-imagine the original book. Returning to his former neighborhood, his new book weaves old and new photographs with texts and archives, inviting us on a journey into his creative process to reflect on questions of home, identity, time, memory, and the evolving urban landscape, and asking: in a globalized world where people and cities are in constant movement, what happens to places and memories? Can we go home again?

Text in English and French.

Edward Hillel is a photographer and multidisciplinary artist. He works at the nexus of history and memory, cities in flux, public space and social practice. He has received the Verband der Deutschen Kritikerpreis fur Bildende Kunst Berlin / German Critics Visual Arts Prize (Berlin), the Golden Sheaf Film Award (Canada), the Prix Alain de Rothschild (France), the Spiro Institute Arts Award (UK) and the Japan-Canada Prize. His work is in public collections including the Museum of Photography (Belgium), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Montréal), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the National Archives (France) and the National Gallery in Prague. His photographs have appeared in Le Monde, Esquire, Fortune, Harper’s, Newsweek and Paris Match. Previous monographs: The Main: Portrait of a Neighborhood (1987); Les Pierres Qui Parlent/Speaking Stones (1993); Contes mnémoniques (1997); Fragments – Berlin/Weimar (1999); Journées valenciennoises (2000); Edward Hillel: Photographs and Installations (2001); Coming Soon… (2002); 125th: Time in Harlem (2014); Electronic Landscapes (2021).