Arounder Montreal by Guest Photographer Jean-Pierre Lavoie

Montreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie, or “City of Mary”, the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the city is located.

Montreal is located in the southwest of the province of Quebec. The city proper covers most of the Island of Montreal at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The port of Montreal lies at one end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which is the river gateway that stretches from the Great Lakes into the Atlantic Ocean. Montreal is defined by its location in between the St. Lawrence river on its south, and by the Rivière des Prairies on its north.

Guest Photographer feature: “Discover Montreal through Jean-Pierre Lavoie’s Eyes.”

“I love to photograph life in Montreal: You mix English and French and you get a well balanced blend of America with a little European touch.“

Jean-Pierre Lavoie’s friends and family in Montreal sort of scratched their heads when he told them he decided to work full time as a photographer specialized in panography since 2007. Lavoie’s past, he was a practicing electrical engineer for 15 years with an interest in cameras well fed by his late father since his youth. Now he’s a former practicing engineer who shoots stills and panoramas for businesses, museums, commercial buildings, festivals, Online magazine, TV stations and news events. That surprising career change from scientific job to photography entrepreneur was a bold decision indeed to better blend his artistic personality to his scientific background. Lavoie began to shoot panoramic images since 2001 while designing and testing electronics circuits to make electronic remote car starters, which are very useful during long Canadian winters. Then he caught the attention in 2007 of a book and multimedia editor that lead to some of his first photography contracts to shoot panoramas of churches and cult related buildings all over the province of Quebec. He started also at the same time to shoot news related panoramas for the main Online french and english newspapers of Montreal. By producing the first news panoramic images in Quebec for the Medias, Lavoie was a pioneer panographer that opened the way to news panography in Quebec. His clientele then opened up to various types of organizations like the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts among other museums, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, major commercial buildings, clinics, hotels, restaurants and local businesses. Lavoie was also hired to make panoramic images in Europe at some industrial and commercial plants. Traveling is another great opportunity for him to discover new cities, the world and, big surprise, to shoot more images.

More about Jean-Pierre Lavoie can be found at: Photojpl.com .

As of July 2009, Statistics Canada identifies Montreal’s Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) (land area 4,259 square kilometres (1,644 sq mi)) as Canada’s second most populous with a population of 1,906,811 in the city and metropolitan area population of 3,814,700.

Cathedral-Basilica of Mary, Queen of the World

The language most spoken at home in the city is French by 52.4% of the population, followed by English at 12.5% (as of 2006 census). The official language of Montreal is French as defined by the city’s charter. Montreal is the second largest primarily French-speaking city in the world, after Paris. Although a few francophone African cities are bigger in size, such as Algiers, Kinshasa, and Abidjan, it is agreed that none of these cities have a significant number of mother-tongue French speakers.

Montreal fashion show

Montreal is consistently rated as one of the world’s most livable cities, was called “Canada’s Cultural Capital” by Monocle Magazine and recently was named a UNESCO City of Design.

Downtown Montreal, central business district

Though historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population by Toronto in 1976. Today it continues as an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, culture, tourism, film and world affairs.

Palais des Congrés de Montréa

Foyer of the Palais des Congrés de Montréal

As of 2009 Montreal is North America’s number one host city for international association events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).

As a North American city, Montreal shares many cultural characteristics with the rest of the continent. It has a tradition of producing both jazz and rock music. The city has also produced much talent in the fields of visual arts, theatre, music, and dance. Yet, being at the confluence of the French and the English traditions, Montreal has developed a unique and distinguished cultural face.

L'Astral concert venue

Another distinctive characteristic of Montreal culture life is to be found in the animation of its downtown, particularly during summer, prompted by cultural and social events, particularly festivals. The city’s largest festival is the Just for Laughs comedy festival, which is the largest in the world of its kind. Other popular festivals include the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Les FrancoFolies de Montréal, Nuits d’Afrique and the Montreal Fireworks Festival.

More panoramas from Jean-Pierre Lavoie can be found in Arounder Montreal.