Before VOX became a hub for contemporary image-based research, it was Vox Populi—a grassroots initiative born out of 1980s youth activism and unemployment. Founded in 1985 by Marcel Blouin and Lucie Bureau, the organization emerged from the Collectif des jeunes sans-emploi de Saint-Louis-du-Parc during a period when youth unemployment in Quebec soared to alarming levels. What began as social advocacy quickly evolved into a cultural platform using photography and print as tools of resistance. Early projects like Sans honte et sans emploi toured widely, challenging stereotypes about the jobless and documenting working-class realities.

By the late ’80s, Vox Populi had shifted its mandate entirely to photography, helping launch Ciel variable magazine and initiating the first Mois de la Photo à Montréal in 1989. From collective activism to curatorial innovation, VOX has maintained its founding spirit of engagement and experimentation—only now, it’s operating on a museum-grade scale inside the 2-22 building, anchoring its practice in research-led exhibition-making that views the image as a complex, post-media phenomenon.