On Thursday February 6th, photographer Jennifer Toole will be showing fourteen new—never-before-exhibited—framed prints from her Goddess Array series at Dundas West’s Hashtag Gallery. The evening will also act as a launch event for her stunning new photography book.

The photos on display represent four years of work—shot here in Ontario, but also in California, Quebec, and Ibiza. Snapping women in the nude, against magnificent natural backdrops, is not a new idea, but the way Toole’s subjects appear is refreshing: each exude a kind of comfort and confidence that most of us long for.

Toole describes her series as a way for women to claim more space, or “a defiant act of freedom”.  The project was inspired by her love and appreciation of Greek mythology, “Greek Goddesses are diverse, archetypal and mythological in proportion.” Thus began an epic adventure to shoot powerful Goddesses in her own life—friends hailing from a wide variety of industries and backgrounds, all of whom exude a strength that Toole feels and admires, or as she says:”The models are real life goddesses in their own realms.”

Beyond an evening to celebrate the divine in all of us, there will be a video installation of nymphs bathing in the river on display (which we’ll be treating as a mini mid-winter getaway). 

Join us at the reception for The Goddess Array Exhibit + book launch on February 6th, at 6p.m. at Hashtag Gallery (830 Dundas St. W.). More on Jennifer Toole’s work here.