For nearly three decades, I have sought to capture the spiritual essence of the Canadian landscape through the traditional photographic medium.
Beginning in my early twenties, I embarked on countless solo canoe excursions into the Precambrian wilderness of Northern Ontario, photographing the polished, lithic landscapes previously painted by the famed Canadian Group of Seven artists.
In 1999 I set out on the first of many cross-country photo expeditions, on a quest to forge my own distinct photographic style with the wild expanse of the Canadian landscape as my canvas.
I have remained a photographic purist, choosing the slow workings of both medium and large format cameras over contemporary instruments, to transmit nature’s luminant expressions onto both colour transparency and monochrome film.
All my work is optically printed in a conventional darkroom using the rare 1963 Cibachrome colour process or black and white silver gelatin. The three-dimensional realism of a hand-printed traditional photograph remains unmatched by any modern-day photographic process; its tactile qualities must be seen to fully appreciate its timeless beauty.
As I continue to view the natural world through the ground glass of my wood field camera, my vision becomes ever more distilled. I find myself creating fewer photographs with each passing year, seeking to translate only the most quintessential moments of light and land onto film. Many of my favourite images have taken days, weeks, or even years of returning to the same location until all the essential compositional elements converged into one.
To experience these transitory moments of resplendent light through the traditional photographic lens has been an inspiring journey with profound spiritual wonderment. My work strives to go beyond the mere documentary capture of a landscape by gazing towards the veiled; creating imagery where the physical world touches the divine.
