WINTER 2023/2024
THE LAND ISSUE ALAN BULLEY RE:PLACED
STEVE KEAN MOVING LANDSCAPES
ELLA MORTON NORTHERN CURIOSITY
A POEM BY TENILLE CAMPBELL + MORE
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VERA SALTZMAN
Fort Qu’Appelle, SK “Sad Moon Rising” from the series, Where will the frogs sing?
“ The landscape of Saskatchewan is changing as small remnants of land are destroyed to make way for large-scale industrial farming and development.” verasaltzman.com IG:@vera.saltzman
IN THIS ISSUE... 6 RESOURCES WE LOVE By Alan Bulley 11 SCARBOROUGH MADE: RECLAIMING COMMUNITY SPACE By Sid Naidu 13 THIS SUMMER WE TRAVELLED A poem by Tenille Campbell 20 ELLA MORTON: NORTHERN CURIOSITY By Corinna vanGerwen 28 STEVE KEAN: MOVING LANDSCAPES By Bart Gazzola
34 PORTFOLIO Featuring: Janet Hinkle, Arlin Ffrench, Vera Saltzman, Joanne White, Julie Florio, TJ Watt, Edward Peck, Jeff Adams, Rachel Foster, Richard Miller & Geneviéve Thibault, Richard Robesco, and Richelle Forsey 48 JAIME BLACK-MORSETTE: INTUITIVE RITUAL By Darren Pottie 53 ALAN BULLEY RE:PLACED 60 THE GALLERY Submissions by our readers
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EDITOR’S NOTE THE THEME OF LAND PRESENTS CONTENTIOUS AND INSPIRING POSSIBILITIES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS.
Photo by Ryan Parker
From clearly demonstrating the abuse we inflict on our Earth, to celebrating and expressing beauty and gratitude for the land we live on, the artists in this edition collectively bring forth an incredible range of observations, possibilities, and questions about the future on our planet.
“ The Earth is what we all have in common.” — Wendell Berry
Ella Morton’s analog manipulations speak to her layered experiences of exploring cold northern climates. Her photographs of Arctic lands simultaneously convey stoic beauty and unprecedented environmental changes, overlaid with physical (and metaphorical) human manipulations. Meanwhile, Steve Kean shares his experiences with land, raising questions around the physical experiences we have in nature, or the absence of those experiences, when challenged with accessibility issues. This edition also features an exciting first: the commission of a poem. I am especially excited to share an original new work by photographer and writer Tenille Campbell, which was used as a prompt for creative responses from our
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Patreon community. Check out the visual interpretations we received in response to her words on page 13. I hope readers will find inspiration in this edition to reflect on and acknowledge that Turtle Island — although fraught with contentious political issues and decisions — is a place we must all work together to heal. It is with gratitude and respect to the First Peoples that came before me that I have the opportunity to live and work on their traditional lands. Looking ahead, our Spring 2024 edition will be our 70th edition in print! We thought it would be fitting to make this upcoming edition a celebration of LIGHT. If your work embraces light from a fresh perspective, find out more about submitting your work on our website. Follow us on Instagram, Patreon, and Facebook, and sign up for our e-newsletter to keep up with all our adventures!
Your editor, Rita Godlevskis
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WINTER 2023 / 2024 ISSUE #69 ISSN 1708-282X EDITOR/PUBLISHER
PhotoED Magazine is published 3x/year, SPRING, FALL, & WINTER See www.photoed.ca for subscription and advertising information. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40634032 PhotoED Magazine 2100 Bloor St. West, Suite 6218 Toronto, ON M6S 5A5
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This issue was made possible with the assistance of the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Canada.
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Rita Godlevskis /rita@photoed.ca Ruth Alves Alan Bulley Tenille Campbell Bart Gazzola Sid Naidu Darren Pottie Corinna vanGerwen Deborah Cooper Marie Louise Moutafchieva “Desire Lines” by Richelle Forsey
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A FEW EARTHY RESOURCES WE RECOMMEND BY ALAN BULLEY
MARLENE CREATES: PLACES, PATHS, AND PAUSES Edited by Susan Gibson Garvey & Andrea Kunard Multidisciplinary artist Marlene Creates has been digging deep into the land for over 40 years. Her explorations of “place” involve photography, memory-mapping, and site-specific works in and around the Newfoundland property where she lives in “relational aesthetic.” Marlene Creates offers a retrospective of the artist’s output, and an extended contemplation on place and presence — that is, how the actions of people, nature, and time create meaning in particular parts of the land. There are no technicolour sunsets or sweeping vistas to be found in this collection. Instead, there is an openness to the slow, thoughtful work of seasons, and wind and, yes, humans on the land. And in a time-pressed world, that’s a very good thing. Hardcover, 2017, 204 pages $50 + shipping Goose Lane Editions and Beaverbrook Art Gallery Available from online retailers
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ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH Since his student days, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky’s practice has increasingly focused on the impacts of development and resource extraction on the land. When the award-winning Anthropocene debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018, Edward added his visual voice to those who claim that we have entered a new age, one that is attributable to human action on the planet rather than to natural processes alone. We are messing up the land (and water and air) on a global scale and we cannot avoid the consequences. This film amplifies the alarm, with a presentation that is beautiful and horrible, all at once. 2018, Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, and Nicholas de Pencier, Directors Available for purchase or rent on YouTube
A RIBBON OF HIGHWAY: A PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPLORATION OF CANADIAN IDENTITY By Taylor Roades An adventurous photographic exploration of Canada. This collection of images, taken over a decade, presents Taylor’s poignantly observed, first-person experience, visiting both recognizable and remote places across the country. Taylor intrigues readers with images that weave local idiosyncrasies together with iconic landscapes from coast to coast. If you have travelled in any part of Canada, you will see something delightfully familiar and, in a country with so much to explore, somewhere new to add to your list. Hardcover, 2023, 176 pages $40+ shipping rmbooks.com
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HOUSE BLOODLINE By Meryl McMaster Meryl McMaster’s dreamscapes clearly demonstrate attention to production details. Her carefully selected landscapes are characters in her stories, not backdrops. In the worlds she evokes, identity is not just found within the self, but also in relation to community, culture, and the land. This sweeping collection of her work is cast as a dialogue with her three paternal grandmothers from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Along with some older work in the book, these new images compel us to reflect on the history of colonization in the place we call Canada. They might also lead us to consider how our own ‘places’ — personal, cultural, and geographical shape who and what we are now. Hardcover, 2023, 224 pages $65 + shipping The Magenta Foundation, Remai Modern, McMichael Canadian Art Collection shop.mcmichael.com GoFundMe
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SCARBOROUGH MADE: RECLAIMING COMMUNITY SPACE BY SID NAIDU
SCARBOROUGH MADE (SM) IS A SOCIAL IMPACT ORGANIZATION that champions documentary storytelling through photography and video in Toronto’s East. Co-founded by Alex Narvaez and Sid Naidu in 2019, the group aims to shift how this underserved neighbourhood is portrayed in the media, and support emerging BIPOC youth in pursuing creative work that intersects with community building. The project provides mentorship and employment opportunities for documentary storytelling, public art, and community engagement. ABOVE: An aerial view of “Scarborough Made in the Parks,” an installation at Malvern Park in 2023, photo by Sid Naidu. BELOW: SM founders Sid Naidu + Alex Narvaez.
Since we started SM, we’ve produced five unique public art installations. These projects are active demonstrations of how artsbased engagement can positively impact neighbourhoods. The youth artists who contribute to our projects develop a stronger connection to the community that they come from. photo ED 11
SM Youth artists Alicia Reid and Joyce Jiang both documented stories that connect meaningfully to the topic of land. Joyce Jiang is part of our most recent cohort of youth artists who worked on this year’s parks project to engage green spaces in the community of Malvern. Working with the SM team, Joyce pitched and documented the story of Crosby Gitigaan, an Ojibwe and Shawnee family-owned farm cultivating the land for local food production by incorporating Indigenous agricultural knowledge and techniques.
“ Through SM, I learned to situate myself and be present capturing what is happening around me.” — Joyce Jiang
Joyce says, “There’s a lot to be done for Indigenous communities seeking reconciliation. I wanted to shed light on stories not being told. Collaborating with the Crosby family allowed me to learn how people in communities contribute to solving problems around our climate crisis. I’ve always watched and had an interest in documentary-style work but have never produced anything in the genre.” Alicia joined SM in our inaugural mentorship program in 2021. “It’s not often that you see media and artwork dedicated to Scarborough, and I loved seeing that sense of pride in my community. I was in awe seeing the installations of people I grew up learning from, spotlighted through SM,” says Alicia. Alicia was drawn to the story of Seema David, founder of the 52N, which was a soup kitchen that had expanded into a multi-food hub that serves those in need. 52N’s garden project took over an area of land primarily used for industry to teach youth gardening skills and provide fresh produce to community members.
ABOVE: Joyce Jiang and her “Portrait of Aiden, Myra & Isaac Crosby at Crosby Gitigaan, Malvern Urban Farm in Scarborough,” installation at Malvern Park.
BELOW: Alicia Reid and her “Portrait of Seema David at 52N Garden Project Founder of 52N,” installed at the Cedarbrae Library.
“From Seema’s story, I learned different aspects of being a documentarian, from using a field recorder for interviews to having my first outdoor installation. I want to be loud and proud about what Scarborough has to offer,” Alicia proudly states. For SM, the youth artists who contribute to the documentary work and installations take their first steps as creative placemakers to reclaim everyday public spaces into landscapes that can inspire and engage. More importantly, they build strong connections to the neighbourhood to ensure we don’t neglect our land and the people who give back to our community.
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For more information about this project, please visit scarboroughmade.com IG: @scarboroughmade
THIS SUMMER, WE TRAVELLED PHOTOED MAGAZINE PRESENTS
A POEM BY TENILLE CAMPBELL
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PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM ACROSS CANADA INTERPRET A POEM
WE INVITED OUR PATRONS to participate in a creative conversation through images. photoED Magazine commissioned an original poem by Tennille Campbell a Dene/Métis author and photographer from English River First Nation, Saskatchewan.
Our contributors responded to her words with an image of their own. The following pages are a presentation of where our contributors took this story.
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THIS SUMMER,
we travelled through prairie fields and under prairie skies th rough the badlands and through the foothills through mountains peaks and valleys th rough an old growth forest and by the charred remains of ancient woods in transition...
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5 1. SHELLY PRIEST This poem rests deep in my heart. I can visualize those that lived here before me. Though lives have changed, the land still beckons us to explore and discover for ourselves. 2. DAVID BRANDY When I stood in this location at Salt Spring Island I felt the majesty of the land rising out of the surrounding ocean. But I also felt the irony of the colonial trope of a numbered picnic table and manicured lawn in this exquisite setting.
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8 3. JOHN HEALEY “Roots,” 2023. Attachment, support, nourishment. 4. MICHELINE GODBOUT “Peeking Through Mist,” taken at the Hendrie Valley Sanctuary, on Anishinaabe land. 5. TRACEY HALLADAY This house in Southern Alberta brought to my mind questions about the people who settled here and what they may have experienced here.
6. KEN UDLE The image represents the life source that is Turtle Island. Mountains, valleys, and pathways, a witness to history and an endurance towards our future. 7. PATRICIA PARSONS The plaque at this gravesite in Dettah, NWT, simply reads a name, dates, and “Proud Father.” I was touched that a chair had been placed at this site to sit beside a loved one. 8. CB CAMPBELL Within minutes the sky went from clear
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10 to smoke-cloud-filled. Fire is a harsh reminder that our mistreatment of the Earth has dire consequences for all of us. 9. RAMO/HCKYGRLPHOTO “and we arrived to the stairs of the cathedral and the pilgrimage suddenly made a higher sense” 10. ALBERT BEDWARD The magic of hiking through wild green grasses is that each blade cuts out the unnecessary chatter we often carry in our day to day, lightens our boots, makes way for a newness.
AS WE DROVE
I named out loud the lands who we were guests on wh o had lived here continued to live here the cree and the dene the metis, dakota and the blackfoot te lling stories of friends who lived nearby co usins who had travelled through here before...
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11. COLLIN J. ÖRTHNER I think of the many eyes that have witnessed the same scene over thousands of years past. How were their thoughts and ideas of these magnificent peaks different than mine?
14. DAVID J. KENNY …and how we continue on. Schoolchildren respond to what they learn about shelter and those who came before them.
12. LORI RYERSON “Energy Savings.” Out of the acres and acres of available land in the Owens Valley in California, why was it necessary to run a power line THROUGH this Native American burial ground?
15. GERALD WOLFE “Howe Sound Blues.” 16. CASEY HAUGHLAND In Newfoundland, the ocean bursts against the rocky shores. Uninhabited and untouched by human hands.
13. MANDY KLEIN A regional Ontario site that has so far been left in its prairie-like state.
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...DAY TURNED TO NIGHT
th e names of our lands and our kin continued on the stoney and the tsuutina the shuswap and the tkemlups the squamish to the hesquiath se as of prairies fields turned to chilly mountains tops fading into low valleys of fruit and fishing fa lling into pacific beachside and white tipped waters...
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17. LORETTA MEYER “As above. So below.” 18. FRANK MYERS A cutover forest in Northwestern Ontario speaks of what settler culture and its rampant consumerism has cost the land. 19. MARK WALTON “Migration,” from the Complicity series. This image was taken along Hwy 16 in Manitoba.
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20. HENRY VANDERSPEK A rainbow in the spray created by our tour boat in Western Brook Pond, Newfoundland. 21. MELISSA KRISTENSEN SMITH We are nothing without the land. We live on it, we live off of it. Our time can be short upon it. Why do we not make more effort to preserve it for others? 22. CHRIS ALIC This poem made me think of the land before humans eroded it and built over it.
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...THIS LAND WAS REMEMBERED spoken out into the wind an acknowledgement of who had been here and how we continue on
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ELLA MORTON:
NORTHERN CURIOSITY Arctic and analog explorations BY CORINNA VANGERWEN
GROWING UP in Vancouver, Ella Morton has always been curious about the North. She noticed populations clustered along Canada’s southern border in the maps that she studied in school, but the vast expanse sitting above that density drew her attention. She wanted to know: “What’s all that in the North?”
Her love affair with icy landscapes truly began in 2010, at an artist’s residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland, on the edge of the Arctic Circle. “In the Arctic, there’s this power that you don’t know until you’re there,” she says. This was the first of many trips that the Toronto-based photographer has taken to northern climates, travelling to places such as Hämeenkyrö, Finland; Hanstholm, Denmark; Ilulissat, Greenland; and the tiny 55-house village of Tjørnuvík on the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. Closer to home, she’s visited Iqaluit and Pangnirtung in Nunavut, and Fogo Island in Newfoundland and Labrador, where icebergs from Greenland commonly float by as they drift southward.
“Tilting Storm.” Lightjet print from mordançage, 2018. Captured in Tilting, Fogo Island, Newfoundland. photo ED 21
TOP: “Blomstrandbreen #3.” Lightjet print from soaked film, 2016. Captured in Svalbard, Norway. BOTTOM: “Fuglefjorden.” Lightjet print from soaked film, 2016. Captured in Svalbard, Norway.
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Psychedelic colours, warped veils, and imperfections like splotches imply decay and decline: a world that is falling apart.
TOP: “Antigua at Blomstrandhalvøya #2.” Lightjet print from mordançage, 2019. Captured in Svalbard, Norway. BOTTOM: “Pyramiden #1.” Lightjet print from soaked film, 2016. Captured in Svalbard, Norway.
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It was a 2016 trip to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, though, that gave birth to Ella’s largest series of work. As part of an expeditionary residency program, Ella travelled aboard a barquentine tall ship, spending two weeks sailing through fjords, around islands, and alongside icebergs, north of 66°, within the Arctic Circle. Here, where the effects of global warming are most pronounced, she captured the first images for The Dissolving Landscape, a three-part series of more than 60 photographs that explores ideas around climate change. Images of snow-laden landscapes — which we’re used to seeing as awe-inspiring majestic expanses in National Geographic–esque nature photography — are rendered gritty and surreal in Ella’s work. Psychedelic colours, warped veils, and imperfections like splotches imply decay and decline: a world that is falling apart. “It shows the sublime and the magic of the landscape, but also its fragility and uncertainty with climate change,” says Ella. Ella relies on two alternative photography processes — film 24 photo ED
soup and mordançage — to alter the film’s chemistry for each photo and to create the degraded effect of her Dissolving Landscape images. She began experimenting with film soup recipes before her 2016 Svalbard trip, soaking unexposed large format film in such ingredients as wine, lemon juice, and beer to “mess it up in wonderful ways.” Her tests allowed her to discover what worked best and gave her a general sense of what textures to expect from different liquids. However, the results remain unpredictable. “I don’t know the colour tones. I don’t know the shapes,” says Ella. “I just more or less know that it’ll turn out okay.” The other alternative photography process that Ella uses — mordançage — allows her to mechanically alter her images. Soaking silver gelatin prints in a chemical mixture, the whites become bleached and the darkest black parts of the emulsion start lifting, which Ella manipulates. The resulting dark veils often lend an ominous aura to the photos.
LEFT PAGE: “Iceberg at Portal Point.” Wet-plate collodion ambrotype on black glass with glue and gold pigment, 2022. Captured in Antarctica. TOP: “Satellite Dishes.” Lightjet print from mordançage, 2019. Captured in Svalbard, Norway. BOTTOM: “Blomstrandhalvøya.” Lightjet print from soaked film, 2016. Captured in Svalbard, Norway.
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“Rock, Apex.” Lightjet print from soaked film, 2019. Captured in Apex, Nunavut.
Upon returning home from her first trip to Svalbard, Ella initially thought she was done with The Dissolving Landscape and was prepared to move on to her next project — until she realized it was just the first chapter of what became a three-part series. (She also created two experimental short films during this time.) “I thought, ‘Gee, that’s silly that I went all the way to Svalbard to go to the Arctic. But I haven’t seen the Arctic in my own country.’” Created over the course of five years, the three installments of The Dissolving Landscape are segmented by location: I – Svalbard; II – Finland, Iceland, Estonia; and III – Canada. “The North is part of our culture and curiosity,” says Ella. Ella continues her exploration of alternative photography processes along with themes of climate change in a new work, Procession of Ghosts. These pieces are wet-plate collodion ambrotypes, the 19thcentury photographic process of adding light-sensitive emulsion to a glass plate, then exposing it to create an image. Ella then 26 photo ED
breaks these glass plates — an act of destruction that calls to mind our destruction of the planet. Yet unlike The Dissolving Landscape, which speaks only to the bleakness of climate change, Procession of Ghosts adds a layer of optimism. Mimicking the Japanese art of kintsugi, Ella puts the pieces of the broken glass images back together, using gold pigment to highlight the repaired cracks. The philosophy of kintsugi — that damaged items are beautiful and worth saving — elicits ideas of hope for the planet. “It’s an interesting thought to apply to our relationship to the land and to the Earth,” says Ella. This work poses some interesting new questions for viewers: Can we come out the other side of the climate emergency with newfound understanding and appreciation for the planet? and If we can reverse and repair the damage we’ve done, will we appreciate our planet more? ellamorton.com
Steve
The Moving Landscapes of
Kean BY BART GAZZOLA
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WE ARE DEFINED BY THE LANDSCAPE, BUT THE LANDSCAPE IS ALSO DEFINED BY US. A PLETHORA OF assumptions around landscape photography exist in contemporary artmaking — that landscape photos are “boring,” overdone, or simplistic. Often the personal experience of the photographer is dominant in the story of the image, privileging an individual’s moment over a wider resonance for the viewer. It’s not unusual to speak of art as a “place to stand.” An ablelist assertion when contemplating the work of fine art photographer Steve Kean.
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“Winter Nocturne #4.” A gas station near Magnetewan, taken from a moving bus on the road to Toronto from Sudbury, ON. Printed on Japanese washi paper, 2023.
Steve describes himself as both a disabled photographer and a photographer with a disability, noting that these terms are not interchangeable. As the former, he lives and creates art in a world that isn’t designed to accommodate him and his wheelchair. As the latter, he is a person first and frames his disability as a part of him. The artist offers the following about his Moving Landscapes series: “Growing up and seeing the world from a wheelchair, I didn’t think I would ever focus my photography on landscapes. Doing this work has allowed me to explore my roots, indeed the roots of all of us. Most of these images were made in the space between cities from moving trains and buses. Outside the confines of cities and free from the pollution from light and industrialization, I am free to explore and create. Moving Landscapes explores the intersection of the natural world and the one created by man. It is not lost on me that the very roads and rails upon which I have travelled were made by humans and slice through what was once unspoiled Nature. Moving through those scenes 30 photo ED
at great speeds and showing that in my pictures is a reminder, perhaps a wakeup call of the fragile and fleeting beauty of Mother Earth. Nature takes her time and that no longer seems to be in the nature of man.” Moving Landscapes began accidentally. After his professional camera equipment failed, Steve began to experiment with his iPhone. Travelling on a train, he played, and instantly got excited. “I had something,” he notes. “I could work with this idea. And that something has become Moving Landscapes.” Randomness is an intrinsic and essential part of his process, and he enjoys the gleeful surprise he feels when he sees what he has captured — whether intentionally or as “happy accidents.” Steve provides us with a fresh perspective. His Winter Nocturne series (a body of work under the umbrella of Moving Landscapes) explores landscapes at night from a moving bus. The passage of time becomes an important theme in this work. Unlike traditional photographs that stop time each image, his work combines several
“Winter Nocturne #8.” Taken from a bus, north of King City. Printed on Japanese washi paper, 2023.
fleeting moments in a single frame. Steve’s landscapes are soft but vibrant. The Winter Nocturne works have a hazy vagueness akin to romantic paintings but also reminds me that I’ve spent significant time on buses and trains. These are sleepy images of travel, where one moment becomes many or many moments become a singular blurred memory. “Winter Nocturne #4” offers a suffused bleeding neon stain of light and colour that captures, for me, the vagaries of late night travel. It reminds me of a bus ride through Sudbury at 4:00 a.m. It’s a testament to the power of Steve’s images that this memory is pulled from me. There’s also joy in this work, an emotion that is surely connected to how this series began. Prior to this landscape work, Steve worked on Spina Bifida Front to Back, a personal project about the disability he lives with and negotiates daily. He says, “It was exhilarating, exhausting, and beautiful all at the same time. It took a lot out of
me emotionally and physically and I needed a break. I discovered my techniques for Moving Landscapes while I had embarked on what I call a ‘pretty pictures’ phase, which was about creating for myself and nobody else.” A connection in considering this story can be drawn back to Steve’s own explanation about the difference between a disabled photographer and a photographer with a disability, “Moving Landscapes is more about being an artist first and less about being “an artist with a disability.” For those who think that landscapes in art — and especially in photography — are an exhausted trope, Steve’s work offers us a different approach in considering how we negotiate the genre, and how a dialogue that is both unique and universal can be possible. He summarizes, “Perhaps Moving Landscapes and the ways I have found to enter into the natural world, in spite of my disability, are my way of voicing my fears, concerns, love, and awe for the world we live in and on.” IG: @stevekeanphoto
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From the Moving Landscapes series, an image made on a trip from Sudbury to Toronto, ON, 2023.
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PORTFOLIO
LAND
JANET HINKLE OF MANY WORLDS Toronto, ON
A multidisciplinary, research-based photographic work that expresses human-environment ecologies in Toronto. IG:@_janethinkle_
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ARLIN FFRENCH LANDS Vancouver, BC
I use a toy Diana camera to embrace a lack of control and imperfection when rendering an overwhelming natural world. arlinffrench.com IG:@arlinffrenchart
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VERA SALTZMAN WHERE WILL THE FROGS SING? Fort Qu’Appelle, SK
While the nostalgic view of Saskatchewan is a beautiful one, it is important to recognise the changes to our landscape have far greater impact than what is seen on the surface. Land stores carbon, provides homes for animals, holds water, and much more. As our relationship with the land and interconnectedness with it becomes fragile, numerous ecosystems are left hanging by a thread to survive. Through this work, a collaborative project with artist Sue Bland, I strive to understand our Canadian history and, my relationship with the land as a white settler, and to focus on reciprocity with land…for the sake of the land itself.
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JOANNE WHITE THE LAND North Vancouver, BC
The land pushes through the frame, reclaiming it’s place — a reminder of what was before, and will be again. Captured on film, this double exposure speaks to the resilience and power of the land. joannewhite.com IG:@joannewhitephotography
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JULIE FLORIO TRANSITIONS - GLACIAL EVOLUTION Stoney Creek, ON
Progress is a word we use to describe how we are different from what’s come before. While landscapes reflect our ecological and ideological victories and failures, they don’t judge us. They simply ask: “Is this what you want? Is this view the progress you wanted to achieve?” IG:@julieflorio.art
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TJ WATT BEFORE/AFTER Vancouver, BC
This is not a series I ever hoped to continue. These are before and after images of giant ancient cedars cut in the Caycuse watershed in Ditidaht territory on Vancouver Island. I revisited this magnificent grove that I had photographed earlier, only this time it was only the stumps of those same trees that were left. Gone were the vibrant flourishes of red, green, and gold. Instead, a bleak, grey landscape lay before me, utterly unrecognizable from what I remembered. Heart-wrenching as they are, I hope these images stand as stark examples of what is happening everyday across BC and why we need to protect these endangered forests. tjwatt.com/caycuse-before-after
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EDWARD PECK WHITE MUD VALLEY MOMENTS Victoria, BC
Paradise in the Coulees, homestead generations cleaving to the land in remote Saskatchewan’s Whitemud Valley in the Coulees of the Cypress Hills. sassamatt.com IG:@sassamatt
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JEFF ADAMS RECKON & RE-IMAGINING Minesing, ON
This work aims to reckon with my existence with the outdoors and the land.
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RACHEL FOSTER HORIZON Vancouver, BC
This series of lumen prints compare Earth’s soil complexity in impressions of sand, humus, roots, and grass-seeds to that of Martian soil photographed by NASA’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). rachelverity.org IG:@_rachelverity
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NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
RICHARD MILLER & GENEVIÉVE THIBAULT FORGOTTEN | IMAGES | OUBLIÉES Toronto, ON
To document the irreparable changes Gaspé Copper Mines inflicted on the land, Gaspesian Richard and Québécoise Geneviéve recreate archival panoramic images of unspoiled wilderness that Richard’s grandfather commissioned to promote the copper deposit he discovered a century ago. dragonflydocumentary.wordpress.com genevievethibault.com
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RICHELLE FORSEY DESIRE LINES Guelph, ON
Desire Lines aestheticizes the vulnerability of the environment and examines human activity on the land at the intersection of the sublime landscape and the built environment – where it meets the interests of capitalism and consumption.
RICHARD ROBESCO
richelleforsey.com IG:@Richelle4C
PLACES: CHAOS AND BEAUTY Gatineau, QC richardrobesco.com IG:@richardrobesco photo ED 47
JAIME BLACK-MORSETTE:
INTUITIVE RITUAL BY DARREN POTTIE
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WE ALL HAVE A RELATIONSHIP to the land we walk on. How we choose to engage with that relationship can define our sense of self and our place in the world. Intentionally, the land is what envelops Jaime Black-Morsette’s body in the photographs that document her practice. Water, trees, snow, earth, and the stars surround her as she enters into their space. As a multidisciplinary artist of Métis and Finnish descent, her images come from performances and public installations she creates in and around Treaty 1 Territory.
OPPOSITE PAGE: “Untitled 1.” Artist Jaime Black, 2020. Photo credit: Niklas Konowal. THIS PAGE: “Untitled 2.” Artist Jaime Black, 2020. Photo credit: Niklas Konowal.
In all aspects of her work she is dedicated to connecting with and fostering her relationship with the land. She spends long periods of time seeking the stories, knowledge, and history the land carries, paying respect and attention to the lessons she can learn. She then creates rituals and ceremonies that express these moments. It is work that is grounded in an understanding of the body and the land as sources of cultural and spiritual knowledge. In “Untitled 1” and “Untitled 2,” a faint shadow of the artist fades into the expanse of the twilight. In one she is alone, in the other she is joined by another figure in a double exposure. Ghosts standing on the horizon encompassed by the stars. At any moment, either of the ghostly figures could disappear completely photo ED 49
THIS PAGE: “Resilience,” 2017. Artist/ photographer: Jaime BlackMorsette. OPPOSITE PAGE: “Re-Immersion” 2019. Artist: Jaime Black -Morsette. Photo credit: Brandy Bloxom.
from the image, and yet the stars will clearly remain. The point of connection between the two figures where the double exposure coincides is strong to be sure, but not strong enough to solidify either presence. Rather than mournful, there is solace, even hope in the images, that with or without the passing of our time on the earth, the land lives on. In her REDress project, Jaime hangs red dresses in public spaces. The garments are a visual and tangible response to the ongoing national emergency surrounding missing and murdered Indigenous women. It is a memorial born of grief and a defiant declaration that these women not be forgotten. The image “Resilience” echoes the REDress project. Jaime dances in the forest as the sun begins its descent. Her billowing red dress is in full motion, hiding her cold feet in the snow. She gazes to the side softly, and in full concentration. A long exposure allows us a moment to sit with her body in motion. Both the performance
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and the image remind me of her REDress project. A reflection of memory for missing and murdered Indigenous women, and a dance of defiance, a dance of continuance, and a dance of connection. What strikes me about the photographs of her rituals is an incredible amount of intimacy that reverberates outwards. Jaime will capture her own performances or work with collaborators to share the essence of artistic intent that goes beyond simple documentation. A quiet confidence in which the artist gives the viewer moments of personal vulnerability, strength of conviction, and connection to the land through ritual. Rituals are ongoing activities that are driven by intention and give an elevated sense of meaning. For some, the first step towards deepening a relationship is to create a ritual that establishes a shared reality, regularly carving out moments in time that allow for deeper vulnerability. They can help create continuity and affirmation, and remind us how special that relationship is.
By now photography scholars have become keenly aware of photography’s entrenched history in colonial violence. From its use in justifications for racial superiority, to mass spreading of hurtful and untruthful stereotypes, to the very language we use in our actions. Shooting, taking, capturing, headshots, and triggers. It is a language of aggression, and Jaime is keenly aware of this. She seeks ways in which we can shift this entrenched way of thinking. Her image capture process is collaborative. The artist as a performer must trust the process (whether through the use of a self timer or with the help of collaborators) to surrender to the ritual at hand. It reduces an authoritarian-style viewpoint in order to more authentically capture the vulnerability of the moment. She searches for ways to use the camera as a tool for conversations about decolonization, a method of sharing performance and installation to a wide audience, which is perhaps why these images pierce the veil of straight documentation. They are gifts of light. In the image “Re-immersion,” Jaime’s nude body is submerged in dark water, curled into a quasi–fetal position. Her features
are obscured by the shimmer of the water and the small bubbles floating to the top. Again her gaze is focused downwards and I reflect on her plunge into the depths. I think about the uncomfortable chill of the water, the surrender to the elements, and an invigorating sense of cleansing, emerging refreshed. We all have a relationship to the land we’re on. But how do you build that relationship? How can you deepen ties to a place, to a space that cannot speak? How do we build reverence and respect that can be counter to ingrained colonial teachings? Jaime doesn’t have the answers to these questions, or the many critical emergencies facing our generation. But in intuitive acts of deep vulnerability and self-portraiture she is willing to share with the viewer what she has gleaned from her time spent on the land. She dances in memory and dives into uncomfortable places from which we can re-emerge. She gives us these learnings as a road map for beginning our own journey towards understanding our responsibilities. jaimeblackartist.com photo ED 51
Looking for gold? There’s no rush. Looking for new photography frontiers to explore? Wondering where to go for retro equipment of the future? No need to saddle up for distant locales. We sponsor shows, fairs and auctions brimming with cool budget-friendly photographic equipment every spring and fall. Locations and dates? Check the PHSC website.
www.phsc.ca
Kichi Z b : Grande Rivière: Rivière des Outaouais/Ottawa River
re:Placed A river runs through it BY ALAN BULLEY
LATELY, I’VE BEEN EXPLORING the idea that how we experience places — directly or via photographs — is affected by the names by which we know them.
While reading Liz Wells’ Land Matters: Landscape Photography, Culture and Identity, I was struck by this paragraph:
The act of naming is an act of taming. In Western culture, describing space
as desert, or wilderness, or planet, represents potential comprehensibility and cues scientific and philosophical enquiry. By naming I mean both the terming of a space as, for example, wilderness, and the naming of such space, for example, Antarctica. Naming turns space into place.
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Te-nagàdino-zìbi: Rivière Gatineau
This suggests that an “empty” piece of land takes on a new status once we attach a label to it. With the history of colonization in what is now called Canada, we can push this further: re-naming a place erases a previous reality and creates a new identity for it, ignoring whatever peoples might already have been present. In a real sense, the land has been re-placed. As an example of this, I’ve been photographing a stretch of the Kichi Z b . On one bank lies Ottawa, Ontario, and on the other, Gatineau, Quebec. We often speak of the river separating the two cities and the provinces when, in fact, the water unites them. It is thanks to the river’s long history as a transportation and trading route that the two exist at all. It’s a question of perspective. Re-naming has occurred all along the river, from the first contacts with Europeans until the present day, starting with the name of the river itself: Kichi Z b –> Grande Rivière –> Rivière des Outaouais/Ottawa River. French explorers first paddled up the river with Indigenous guides in 1603 and gave new names to the places they saw, but it was not until around 1800 that settlers arrived and began full-scale re-naming in earnest. Each new group layered its own language and ideas about the land on top of what was already there. And it continues to this day. Seen this way, naming the “space” in a landscape photograph doesn’t just evoke a “place,” but creates a framework of meaning for viewers to interpret a location. My series of photographs featuring multiple names from different times and languages makes me see the river differently. The same waterway
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Pasapkedjinawong: Chutes Rideau/Rideau Falls
Mitigomijokan: Deschênes
TE-NAGÀDINO-ZÌBI Rivière Gatineau Gatineau River KABESHINÀN Parc du Lac Leamy Leamy Lake Park
AKIKOJIWAN Chutes Chaudière Chaudière Falls
PASAPKEDJINAWONG Chutes Rideau Rideau Falls ASINABKA Île Victoria Victoria Island
KICHI Z B Rivière des Outaouais Ottawa River MITIGOMIJOKAN Deschênes
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Asinabka: Victoria Island/Île Victoria
Kabeshinàn: Leamy Lake Park/ Parc du Lac Leamy
suggests different things to me depending on the name I associate with it. I am now coming to see the land as a base that we view through filters of interpretation or, if you’re over a certain age, something like the layers of acetate transparencies. The titles we give to our photographs can either open up a range of meanings and readings or they can narrow our thinking to only one interpretation, usually that of the dominant cultural narrative. If I opt for a different name, I can help to recall or create an alternate layer of meaning. And if I choose no title at all for my landscape, that also has an impact on the way a viewer will attempt to read the photograph. Place names and landscape titles are not neutral, but carry the weight of history, of empire, and of peoples. So I ask myself when I look at the land and the water through my lens: Am I standing beside the Kichi Z b , beside la rivière des Outaouais, or beside the Ottawa River? And what does that mean for the way I think about this land, its peoples, and its politics? Reference Wells, L. (2011). Land matters: Landscape photography, culture and identity. London: I.B. Tauris. @alanbulley www.alanbulley.com
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Akikojiwan: Chutes Chaudière/Chaudière Falls
GURUSHOTS:
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CAPTIVATING LANDSCAPES BILLED AS THE WORLD’S GREATEST PHOTO GAME, GuruShots is an international competition platform for photographers. Players get feedback from more than three billion monthly voters and try to work their way up through rankings, from Newbie to the ultimate status (and bragging rights) of Guru.
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GuruShots’ challenges are voted on by the platform’s Gurus and the wider community, with a fresh challenge every day. Winners can receive prizes from GuruShots’ sponsors such as Adorama, Kodak, Lowepro, and Lensbaby. From mountain tops to ocean views, the Captivating Landscapes Challenge showcases a world of wonderful interpretations on this theme.
1. GURU’S TOP PHOTOGRAPHER WINNER Ivano Pitera • Italy
2. PNW Sasquatch • USA 3. José Carlos Machado • Portugal
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4. GURU’S TOP PICK WINNER Gianpiero Secco • Italy 5. Angelo Di Stella • Italy 6. Atle Rasmussen • Norway 7. Daniel Reeves • USA 8. Gordana Bukumiric • Italy 9. Agne Jotautiene • Lithuania 10. Keith Sendall • USA 11. Kenneth Stewart • USA 12. Kirrily Steele • Australia 13. Laimute Kuriene • Netherlands
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14. Lily Xu • Germany 15. Nate Riggins • USA 16. Yifan Wang • USA 17. Robert Varley • USA 18. Saurav Dutta • Germany 19. Teri Madewell • USA 20. The Enigma • USA 21. Unnamed • Italy 22. Tomasz Czarnecki • Poland 23. TOP PHOTO WINNER Roland Hank • Germany
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22 See more entries from this challenge online: photoed.ca/post/gurushots-landscapes
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THE GALLERY SUBMISSIONS BY OUR READERS
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1. THOMAS BRASCH
3. CHRISTOPHER SCHMITT
5.FELICITY SOMERSET
7. PAIGE TAYLOR WHITE
Toronto, ON PLANET ATACAMA thomasbrasch.com IG: @thomasbrasch
Ottawa, ON CAPTURING THE FLATS cjsfoto.ca IG:@CS_Photos
Scarborough, ON INTIMATE LANDSCAPE felicitysomersetphotography.com IG:@felicitysomersetphotography
Vancouver, BC UP, UP, & AWAY paigetaylorwhite.ca
2. XIATONG CAI
4. ROB GRAHAM
6. JOSIE LYNN AMENT
Ottawa, ON THE DISAPPEARING-IT’S RAINING; WILL THE RAIN EVER STOP? xiatongphotography.com IG:@xiatongc
Toronto, ON TOMMY THOMPSON PARK, TORONTO’S ARTIFICIAL WILDERNESS robgrahamphotography.com IG:@robg_analog
Rockwood, ON SUMMER ON GEORGIAN BAY IG:@eyesopencreative @knowitlikeapoet
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE... Check out the DIGITAL EDITION EXTRA ONLINE to see more LAND-based images by more Canadian photographers.
ALSO FEATURING:
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ATIA POKORNY BELLA DOHERTY BRIAN GROBERMAN BRIAN LAVERY CARL RITTENHOUSE CATHERINE BELSHAW CHRISTOPHER SCHMITT DALE M REID E MCDONOUGH EDRISS SYDEQI EMMA JULIETTE SHERLAND EMMA KERN FELICITY SOMERSET GAIL (VILOKINI) ABBOTT GARETH JONES GERALD WOLFE GERMAN GARCIA HENRY TATARIN HENRY VANDERSPEK JANET HINKLE JESSE MILETIN JOANNE WHITE JOE ATIKIAN JOHN JETHI JOSLYN PANASIUK JULIE FLORIO KATHRYN FULLERTON KATIE ROULIER LAURA JANE PETELKO LAURA AYRES LEAH OATES LEAH MURRAY LORETTA MYER MANDY KLEIN MARTHE BUJOLD MICHELINE GODBOUT MILENA VASQUEZ NATALIE GOULET NOZOMI KAMEI OR DAVID PAIGE WHITE PIROSKA MIHALKA RACHEL FOSTER RAMO/HCKYGRLPHOTO R I CHARD MILLER + GENEVIÉVE THIBAULT RICHARD ROBESCO RICK MCGINNIS ROB GRAHAM RYAN C RITTENHOUSE SHELDON LEVY TERRY HUGHES THOMAS BRASCH TIMOTHY KOZLIK XIATONG CAI ZIYANG WEI
+ MORE! Check it out online: photoed.ca/digital-issue 4.
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BEST IN SHOW THE WINNING PHOTO FROM THE BELL FIBE
SHUTTERSPEED PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE
WES PERRY FUNDY ECHO Moncton, NB
“Fundy Echo” taken at Irving Nature Park, Saint John, NB, is the winning photo from the landscape challenge in “Shutterspeed Photography Challenge,” a photography reality show aired on the Bell Network’s Fibe TV hosted by Mark Hemmings. “The choice of black and white builds a lot of drama, it means you can see in the sky, where you can see a lot of detail in the clouds. Also the choice of using a long exposure adds a level of technical skill.” — Nate Gaffney, episode co-host. IG: @wesperryphoto 62 photo ED
One of the first women admitted to England’s prestigious Royal Photographic Society, Minna Keene (1859–1943) gained international acclaim for her Pictorialist compositions, while her daughter, Violet Keene Perinchief (1893–1987), became a celebrated portraitist in her own right — and yet both have been largely overlooked in the history of Canadian photography. The Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection at The Image Centre (IMC) is an extraordinary resource for the study of two of Canada’s pioneering female photographers. With a growing collection of more than 400,000 photographic objects and an innovative scholarly research program, the IMC is a hub for the preservation and study of photography. Learn more at theimagecentre.ca
33 Gould Street Toronto, Canada 416.979.5164
Admission is always free. theimagecentre.ca
Minna Keene, View of Forked River Through Forest and Mountains, 1914–1915, carbon print. The Minna Keene and Violet Keene Perinchief Collection, The Image Centre, Gift of the Sturrup Family, 2020
Canary Wharf Bikes by Jonathan Pearce
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