Visitors [ongoing]

In my ongoing series Visitors, I advocate for the power and importance – especially in this fractious virtual age – of truly seeing each other: vulnerable, infinitely complex and here for not as long as any of us would like to think. The project began as an exercise aimed at building my skills in environmental portraiture, under the guidance of British photographer and mentor Siân Davey. Nothing unites these individuals except their presence in Canada’s National Capital Region on the day they consented to be photographed. What I learned over time was that the more genuine my interest in someone, the more real the connection and the better the image. My favourite photographs of these meetings, then, are as much portraits of connection as of individuals.

Gathering Place [ongoing]

Gathering Place is an ongoing series that examines our need for physical connection with nature as well as with each other at a time of environmental decline and virtual relationships. These photos have been taken over a number of years at a local fast-food restaurant on the shore of the Gatineau River, close to Ottawa, Canada. The property is mostly paved, often littered and denuded of vegetation. The view, however, is of largely unspoiled wilderness, the river pouring pristinely out of the north. In the warmer weather people come and linger and I take pictures: parents with children, friends gathering, couples showing affection, bikers stopping for a coffee and a smoke, employees at the drive-thru window. This series unites my conceptual and environmental interests with my approach to street photography.

Theatre of War

My work on Theatre of War began when I stumbled upon a paintball field on a day trip with my camera in 2014. Since then, at various courses in Ontario, I have photographed players as well as the field structures and abandoned vehicles that give battlefield realism to the game. These photographs explore this popular mock-warfare game through environmental portraits and images of field structures. Warfare games, both physical and electronic, seem to have an elemental appeal. Theatre of War is a reflection on the narratives we nurture, including those buried deep in the psyche and in our past. There are polarities at play: pursuer and pursued, hunter and prey, realism and the imagination. Individuals become actors of a sort, soldiers in a make-believe war. The series examines the theatre of the paintball field through images of players splattered with exploded ammunition and mysteriously abstract cubic structures that become metaphors for a loss of innocence.

My thanks thus far to the owners of the following paintball fields: Commando Action Centre (Marie Longtin and David Pitts), Ottawa, Ontario; Barrie Paintball (Mike Clark), Barrie, Ontario; PRZ Paintball, Picton, Ontario; and DMZ Paintball, St. Catharines, Ontario.

Mexico – Street

There are 19 photographs in this series. All but two were taken in San Miguel de Allende (Turistas and Monumento a El Pípila were shot in nearby Guanajuato City). There is much for a photographer to connect with in these places, which are warm and sunny and dry most of the year. Architecture, light, colour and life out of doors … lots of life. Families. Children. Friends visiting. Vendedores (street sellers) selling everything you can imagine. The overall effect for someone from Canada — or, at least, this someone — is that of an entire society turned inside out; as if there’s more life lived outside than inside, which can’t be true, but still ...

Framing the Interior

Each of the subjects in this short series of street photographs is framed twice: once, by the frame of the camera and, second, by the window frame within the composition. Windows are transparent barriers, paradoxically. I felt all the more drawn into these private worlds because of the glass wall of separation.