Chuck Samuels, director general of Le Mois de la Photo a Montreal (holding microphone) with photographer Robert Burley (speaking), in front of Burley's installation at the opening of the festival. Image © Diane Smyth.

The cost of living in Montreal used to be so cheap that artists need only get one show and a couple of commissions a year to survive, says Chuck Samuels, director general of Le Mois de la Photo.

These enviable economic conditions lead to a distinctive art scene in the city, he told Diane Smyth at the festival opening, in which artists step back from the market to consider what art is and what it does. 'Many artists are doing work here that has little regard for the market, that reflects and self-references. That's a real force, and that idea of thinking about art and how it works feeds into Le Mois de la Photo. We are interested in themes that question how photography works or doesn't work rather than a subject such as, for example, 'sports'. That's unlikely to be a theme we would do.'

The first Le Mois de la Photo a Montreal took place in 1989 and was set up by a local artist-run centre, Vox. At that time, said Samuels, the organisers felt photography was under-represented in contemporary art galleries, so they drew on Houston Fotofest and Le Mois de la Photo in Paris to both defend and celebrate photographic art. Since then photography has become a well-established strand in contemporary art but the festival has remained, evolving over time into the guest-curated, strongly themed event it is today.

'It was such a huge success [over the 1990s] that the organisers decided to dispense with the general exhibitions and have one very coherent central theme, organised by a guest curator and supported by a colloquium and publication,' said Samuels. 'They introduced that in 2003, with a festival arranged around the theme of 'NOW. Images of Present Time'. It included work by Paul Seawright and Alison Jackson and looked at contemporary issues, issues usually covered by photojournalists. I came on board in 2002.'

The board of directors does a call for submissions from curators, and this year selected a non-Canadian for the first time since it imposed the single-theme concept, French-born Gaelle Morel. The curators are expected to bring a strong central concept and an idea of the photographers they would like to include, but once accepted, have a year to research exactly which exhibitions they would like to include. Photographers are also invited to submit proposals, and this year's theme, 'The Spaces of the Image' attracted over 400 submissions from all over the world and Morel has included artists from as far away as Chile and the Congo, so check Le Mois de la Photo or BJP websites for more information on the next call for submissions. Or, failing that, move to Montreal and get involved in an exceptional artistic scene.

'Artists and the people who frequent cultural events in Montreal really feel that the events belong to them and they belong to the events,' says Samuels. 'There are a lot of artist-run events and galleries, it's unlike elsewhere.'