" This bond of trust that is established between me and the person I am photographing, before the picture is taken, is a moment that is dear to me."

"For me, photography is a door that lets me go towards other people, other places, 'elsewhere', the unfamiliar, towards all that is unknown to me."

Karim Rholem was born in 1965 in Tangiers, Morocco. He left his country for the first time at the age of 16, to travel throughout Europe; three years later, he left again, this time for Canada, where he wished to immigrate. He arrived in Montreal in 1985, and first studied languages, then photography at the CEGEP du Vieux Montréal. In 1994, he left for Canada's North (Nunavut) with the intention of photographing its landscape. But the Inuit hunters fascinated him, and it was the hunters in their traditional clothing that he decided to photograph instead.

From that time on, seized with the urgency of depicting minority or threatened communities and individuals nearing the end of their life, Karim Rholem became a portrait photographer. But whether he is choosing to photograph immigrants living in Montreal (Si loin . . . si proche), centenarian Quebeckers (100 ans d'histoires à raconter) or poor Moroccan porters (Le poids du destin), what he shows us is, above all, the human being in all his or her complexity and dignity. For example, the large formats that he favours allow for full-length or close-up photos that show the person as he or she is. His choice of black and white reflects his desire not to distract the spectator's eye. In addition, the artist adds textual accounts to his works, which allows the individuals he photographs to speak, and establishes a dialogue between their words and his images: For me, photography is a door that lets me go towards other people, other places, "elsewhere", the unfamiliar, all that is unknown to me.

Conscious that he is accomplishing the work of an archivist, Karim Rholem fully acknowledges the influence on his art by the portrait photographers and anthropologists August Sanders and Edward S. Curtis. In doing this kind of work, he comes closer, not only to ordinary people, but also to the history of a people, a community and an epoch.

Karim Rholem has to his credit numerous exhibitions in Quebec. Some of his works can be found in the photographic collection of the National Archives of Canada and in private collections. One of his works is included in the Canadian Museum of Civilization's collection.