Ann Piché is a photo-based artist in Ottawa, Canada.
Ann Piché makes photographs that sit at the edge of what you can explain. A photo-based artist working in Ottawa, Canada, she has spent her career navigating the divide between science and the arts. Her art lives in that tension.
As the first woman electronic technician hired by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Ann worked within systems defined by precision, structure and measurable outcomes. That experience continues to shape her practice.
A graduate of the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO), her work has been presented in solo exhibitions in Canada and in group exhibitions internationally. Her collaborations include the Departments of Mathematics at the University of Toronto and York University.
Her work has been supported by the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto, the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, the City of Ottawa, and the Ontario Arts Council. Her images have been published in SHOTS and PhotoED.
Ann constructs her images in the camera, using light, movement, and hand-built sets. Working in digital photography, she explores photographic abstraction and experimental techniques as a visual acknowledgement of the anxiety we can feel when facing the unfamiliar.
Artist Statement
What does it feel like to encounter something unfamiliar?
My work begins in that moment of tension, where curiosity meets uncertainty. Where perception bridges knowledge and experience.
As the first woman electronic technician hired by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), I worked within systems defined by precision, structure and measurable outcomes. That experience revealed the strength and limitations of scientific thinking; that tension continues to shape my work.
Exploring photographic abstraction and in-camera experimental techniques, my images are not software generated. They are created physically, through the manipulation of light, materials, and movement using custom sets I build in my studio. This commitment to the material is central to my practice, allowing complex and intangible ideas to take on a physical form.
My work is not about illustrating science. It is about that moment before understanding arrives, when all you have is the feeling.
I am grateful for financial support from the City of Ottawa, the Ontario Arts Council, The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences and the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto.
