THE ECO ISSUE FEATURING
VERDANT LUMINUL THE ECO-FRIENDLY DARKROOM NICK HAWKINS CONSERVATION PHOTOJOURNALIST FALL 2021
ROCIO GRAHAM FOREST MIRACLES TAYLOR ROADES AERIAL PERSPECTIVE
+ MORE! photoED 1
N A I Y D H A P N A EW R A C G O N T D O PH BRAN IN A T. LIGH
IN INT R P W! O N
E N I L N N O O E E U B S I S I R T C S S TE R SUB A L A E C O H . T S D E GET SSTAND O T O W E N .PH
W W W
Rugged outdoor backpacks with the reimagined Lowepro Flipside III Collection
Flipside BP 300 AW III Black
Flipside BP 300 AW III Dark Grey
Flipside BP 400 AW III Black
Flipside BP 400 AW III Dark Grey
Flipside III Back side access with enhanced protection features Designed for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, multiple lenses and accessories.
lowepro.com #loweprobags
Lowepro products are distributed in Canada exclusively by Gentec International. One of Canada’s Best Managed Companies • gentec-intl.com
MARK ESSNER
“ A few years ago, near Chatham, Ontario, I stumbled across a place that was both intriguing and horrifying...” IG: @CavendishSights frommyeyetoyours.com
IN THIS ISSUE... 10 RESOURCES WE LOVE 13
S AMANTHA STEPHENS: LITTLE THINGS + BIG CHANGES By Briar Chaput
18 JOHN HEALEY PLASTIC BEACH 20
VERDANT LUMINUL By Mark Walton
25 COFFEE FOR FILM By Kate Roy 26 THE AERIAL PERSPECTIVE By Taylor Roades
30 NICK HAWKINS ADVENTURER & CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHER By Rita Godlevskis 40 ROCIO GRAHAM FOREST MIRACLES 46 ANNIE BRIARD IN POSSIBLE LANDS By Katherine Dennis 52 READERS GALLERY Submissions by our readers
THANK YOU
THESE AMAZING PEOPLE SUPPORT US AS PATRONS! (AND GET EXTRA PERKS!) 4×5 Large Format Official VIP Patrons Judith Cole Ken Udle Valerie Lancia Ian McKenzie Mark Walton
JOIN US!
120mm Official Patrons Gerry Stone Toni Skokovic E. Ross Bradley Anonymous Jeff Baine Laura Jones Katherine Childs Charlene Williams Alan Bulley
FIND OUT MORE:
35mm Official Patrons Jason Cooper Akemi Matsubuchi Jason Machinski Melanie Scaife Selina Pieczonka Steve Simon Ruth Bergen Braun Thomas Brasch Conan Stark Christine Goodyear Blork
patreon.com/photoedmagazine ON THE COVER...
IN POSSIBLE LANDS ANNIE BRIARD
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE...
Our cover features an image from the In Possible Lands series where artist Annie Briard blended images through slide projections of landscape images—one image captured 45 years ago by her father, and the other a present-day image taken by herself. On multiple long-haul hikes across Western Canada and the United States, the artist has been documenting a rapidly changing environment where, over time, evidence of climate change has become impossible to overlook. Annie Briard (BFA, MFA) is a Vancouver-based photography and media artist whose work challenges how we make sense of the world through visual perception. Creating lens-based and lightfocused works, she explores the intersections among perception paradigms in psychology, neuroscience, and existentialism.
ANNIEBRIARD.COM
EDITOR’S NOTE
DILEMMAS IN THE DETAILS THE CLIMATE IS YET ANOTHER GLOBAL CRISIS that affects us all in big ways and small. Sometimes we notice changes in weather patterns in our own cities and towns, or watch news reports on the decline of specific animal populations, or if we pass a garbage bin on the street full of single-use plastics, we can easily see how human activity is damaging and altering the natural world around us, wherever we live. A self portrait shot on expired 35mm colour film developed in Cawanol.
“We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change – and it has to start today.” — Greta Thunberg
Photographs are instrumental in conveying the changes caused by human activity to the public. I’m so excited to present the work of Canadian photographers who have explored this subject in this edition. From adventure and conservation documentary work by Nick Hawkins, to artists like Rocio Graham and John Healey, this edition looks at different ways photographers take this issue on. The photographic process itself is harmful to the planet, but creative and clever artists Bruce Hildesheim, Sanja Lukac, and Francis A. Willey have been experimenting, and I am SO excited to share their results of creating photographic prints using an eco-friendly darkroom process! Thinking about how we could make some changes towards being more eco-friendly in our production process resulted in us facing some
PHOTOED MAGAZINE IS 100% MADE IN CANADA! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
WWW.PHOTOED.CA @photoedmagazine @photoedmagazine
harsh realities. Sadly, the cost of eco-friendly materials is still considerably higher than their non-friendly counterparts. We made some tiny changes in this edition – you might or might not notice. One section of this print publication is printed on eco-friendly paper, and we found some eco-friendly polybags for mailing out our subscribers copies with. Yay! But these changes are nowhere near where we’d like to be. I’m looking forward to future innovations that will allow us to have it all: amazing quality reproductions that use affordable eco-friendly processes. Looking ahead, the Winter 2021 issue will focus on photographic explorations of typologies (think Hilla and Bernd Becher). If you’ve got a subject you’ve been obsessed with, drop us a line. Follow us on Instagram, Patreon, Facebook, and Twitter, and sign up for our e-newsletter to keep up! Your Editor,
Rita Godlevskis rita@photoed.ca
FALL 2021 ISSUE #62 ISSN 1708-282X
Rita Godlevskis /rita@photoed.ca
EDITOR/PUBLISHER ART DIRECTOR
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
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
COPY EDITOR
Ruth Alves Briar Chaput Rocio Graham John Healey Taylor Roades Kate Roy Mark Walton Deborah Cooper
COVER IMAGE : Our cover features an image from the
In Possible Lands series by by Annie Briard. This issue was made possible with the assistance of the Ontario Arts Council.
+ FIND OUR DIGITAL EDITIONS ON
TAKE NOTE: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
TYPOLOGIES SHARE your work with us! For our next issue, we’re looking to share photographic TYPOLOGIES.
photoed.ca/submit-your-work
FREGEIN
SHIPPIN A CANAD
GET THE GUIDE The PhotoEd GUIDE to Photography is a 128-page magazine-format learning and teaching resource. ORDER ONLINE:
PHOTOED.CA/THE-GUIDE
DEADLINE: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
COFFEE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY LOVERS.
FRESH ROASTED COFFEE DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR. #BREW W ITH THE BEST
SPARKPLUGCOFFEE.COM Special BOGO deal for friends of PhotoED Magazine! Buy one and get one for 40% off with the gift code
PHOTOEDFRIEND
CONGRATULATIONS to Toronto photographer Lucas DeClavasio, winner of the SPARK Photo Festival Focus on Coffee competition! We’re excited about putting Lucas’ winning photo on a special edition coffee. Visit sparkplugcoffee.com to check for availability.
ECO TIP: While photographing to explore and highlight environmental issues, help keep our planet green by buying used cameras, lenses and other equipment. We have cabinets full of gear just waiting to contribute to the cause!
1401 W 8th Ave #110 Vancouver, BC V6H 1C9 Phone: 604.734.7771 / Toll free: 1.800.994.2328
www.beauphoto.com
SUBSCRIBE.CA FOR HOME DELIVERY OF HOT, FRESH, PRINT PHOTO GOODNESS.
W
W
P . W
D E O T O H
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT CANADIAN PUBLISHING.
GET INSPIRED
GO GREEN
Check out our recommendations for eco inspiration ISABELLE HAYEUR: MONOGRAPH By Mona Hakim, Peggy Gale, & Ann Thomas Hardcover, 2020, 360 pages Texts in French and English $70 + Shipping Committed to environmental causes since the 1990s, Isabelle Hayeur takes an acute critical look at the changes in our ecosystems caused by the devastating impacts of massive urbanization and industrialization on our territories. This monograph, the most exhaustive publication to date on this artist’s work, leads us to the heart of her creative activity. Bringing together numerous visual documents, from her composite photographs to portraits of citizen gatherings and activist groups by way of videos, installations in public spaces, and reflective texts, this richly illustrated book explores the vast production of an artist who has gained recognition in the contemporary art world, in Quebec and internationally. The texts present the reader with enlightened insights into the artist’s various accomplishments. plein-sud.org
WRITTEN ON STONE $42 CAD + Shipping We are loving the set of three pocket diaries from A Good Company. These notebooks are made from stone paper (literally recycled stone). The paper is a natural white colour, with no specific grain direction, which makes it perfect for writing, drawing, or painting. It is also waterproof, tear-resistant and wrinkle-free. We love the sustainability of the manufacturing process (no water or chemicals are used – only solar energy) and the product itself is the most durable notebook we’ve ever seen. Perfect for slipping into your jacket pocket, this little travel companion will help you keep track of all of your shots and any anecdotes or creative ideas you come up with along the way. Another bonus: they climate-compensate every order they ship! agood.com
OH, HONEY! $55 CAD with Free Shipping Pela’s eco-friendly phone cases have great patterns and are a big step up from your typical plastic case. Pela is on a mission to create less waste, so their cases are 100% compostable while still being super durable, protecting your phone/ camera from drops and scratches. We specifically love their bright yellow “Honey Hive” design. This sleek case easily slides into your pocket or your camera bag, and the bright colour is easy to spot if you misplace it during one of your photo adventures. pelacase.ca
10 photoED
Promoting Contemporary Visual Arts Since 1988
FALL 2021 EXHIBITION PROGRAMMING July 30 – September 11
Kelly Ruth: Persistence Within Dimensions of Ideals Angelina Simon: with warmest regards, always
WATCH THIS. FOREST FOR THE TREES We are beyond excited to share the creative triumph that is photographer Rita Leistner’s latest. Forest for the Trees is a feature documentary film and a book (published by Dewi Lewis UK), based on Rita’s fine art series The Tree Planters and Enchanted Forests, represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery. Rita is an award-winning multi-media artist and documentary filmmaker with a history of using photography and film to create portraits of communities in extreme conditions — such as soldiers in Iraq, female patients at psychiatric hospitals in wartime, and women wrestlers in the United States — exploring themes of purpose, struggle, and belonging. Forest for the Trees is the story of the vast landscape of clear-cut logging and reforestation as experienced from a community of a hundred tree planters, tree planting by hand in remote locations in Canada. Planting trees one at a time is the overarching metaphor of how we can achieve things we think are impossible: reforesting the earth one tree at a time, getting through life’s challenges one day at a time, and making a film one picture at a time.
September 24 – October 2 Design Week at Harcourt House
Sara Norquay: Citizen of the World Ruta Nichol: The Ceramic Art of Ruta Nichol October 15 – November 27
Becky Thera: 2021 Artist-In-Residence Exhibition Megan Klak: Still December 3 – December 11
2021 Art-O-Rama Art Sale Fundraiser
10215 - 112 Street Edmonton, AB, Canada T5K 1M7 www.harcourthouse.ab.ca info@harcourthouse.ab.ca 780 426 4180
www.forestforthetreesdocumentary.com CAMERON D E V E L O P M E N T C O R P O R A T I O N
PROTECT YOUR
GEAR WITH ONLINE
PHOTOGRAPHY INSURANCE Front Row offers photography insurance available for purchase 100% online. Insure your gear for as low as $100 (plus a fee). Get a quote in 2 minutes; a policy in 5 minutes. Worldwide coverage. Protect your gear against: theft, breakage, fire and more. Liability is also available. Get a free quote 24/7 and buy online:
https://photographer.frontrowinsurance.com
A Westland Company
FAKE NEWS? #REALDEAL!
WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR? Newsroom budgets and staffing levels have been slashed, workload is often overwhelming, and the honesty of your work is being questioned like never before. How do you produce excellent journalism, prove yourself, and improve your work environment?
WE ARE CANADA’S MEDIA UNION We are 6,000 of your fellow media workers in newspapers, digital media, TV and radio. We work at the CBC, The Canadian Press, VICE Canada and newspapers and other companies coast to coast. Being a member of CWA Canada shows everyone what you stand for: decent wages, equal job opportunities, and top-notch journalistic standards and ethics. Our No. 1 job is protecting quality jobs and quality journalism. As journalists, we invite you to find out more.
301 – 2200 Prince of Wales Drive Ottawa ON K2E 6Z9
Phone: 613.820.9777
@cwacanada
Toll Free: 1.877.486.4292
@cwacanada1
Website: cwacanada.ca
SAMANTHA STEPHENS:
Hayden March-Wilson, researcher at the Wildlife Research Station in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park, helps with the daily survey of a population of carnivorous Northern Pitcher Plants. Illuminating a single plant with his flashlight, he looks for shadows that reveal juvenile Spotted Salamanders trapped within the plant’s numerous bellshaped leaves, called pitchers. © Samantha Stephens
LITTLE THINGS + BIG CHANGES BY BRIAR CHAPUT photoED 13
“In the North American Great Lakes it is estimated that around 10 000 tons — 22 million pounds — of plastic enters the water every year and concentrations of plastic in the surface waters are similar to those found in the oceans.” Plastic Pollution in the Great Lakes, by Matthew J. Hoffman (Rochester Institute of Technology, 2019)
18 photoED
JOHN HEALEY
PLASTIC BEACH GROWING UP and being active along the St. Lawrence River gave me a deep appreciation for the St. Lawrence Seaway. Exploration of the many islands and seemingly endless shoreline filled my days and taught me the basic truth that all of us are interconnected with nature. Everything is everything, and by polluting this world we pollute ourselves. The corruption of the waterway became abhorrent and shortsighted in my mind.
The idea for the Plastic Beach series came after a backwoods camping trip into Lake Superior Provincial Park in 2018. There I was struck by the amount of plastic I found on the shoreline at this remote site. Normally I would collect the trash and deposit it in the first garbage can I came across, but this time I took it home and examined everything, trying to understand what it was, who threw it away, and why it was there in the first place. I looked for evidence of branding, clues of manufacturing dates, and the extent of deterioration of each item. After further research, I developed a strategy to collect items from other locations along the entire St. Lawrence Seaway to show exactly what plastic is polluting the waterway. Lighting and macrophotography techniques were used to re-imagine and glorify each item. These images of discarded shopping bags, fragments of milk jugs, and crushed bottle caps, among other things, are reanimated to show us the carelessness with which we treat this habitat that is home to millions of creatures. Undesirable items are set in a revealing light to deliver an ominous message. This trickery is nothing new. Master artists such as Ansel Adams, with his iconic landscapes, used beauty to draw attention to environmental issues. Today, photographers such as Edward Burtynsky create stunning images of the industrial complex and warn us of the dawning of the Anthropocene. My Plastic Beach series strives for the same impact but instead of grand vistas or mesmerizing aerial photographs I look to draw attention to the items right under our own feet. johnhealey.ca
photoED 19
VERDANT LUMINUL:
BY MARK WALTON
PURIST ANALOG PHOTOGRAPHERS (and I include myself in this group) have a tendency to be somewhat condescending towards the digital-photo-shooting masses. It’s not a REAL photograph if there’s no film or plates involved. Why would you let some algorithm written by a soulless corporate hack dictate your vision? If you can only see an image on a screen, is it really a photograph? Admittedly, we come across as a bit “holier-than-thou.” But we also harbour some dirty secrets. Analog photography requires an incredibly toxic process that not only wreaks havoc on the environment and our health, but also has socioeconomic and gender barriers. Proud film shooters have guiltily swept this under the carpet... until now.
20 photoED
Fresh prints made using “The Stimulant” hanging in the Lightbox Studio at Arts Commons. “Starland” by Sanja Lukac hangs on the left, “Ajna Chakara” by Francis A. Willey on the right.
photoED 21
LOOK
NOT BACKWARDS 30 photoED
FORWARD
A Q&A WITH
NICK HAWKINS CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHER
NICK HAWKINS is a photojournalist and 2020 National Geographic Explorer based in Eastern Canada. A biologist by training, he has worked around the world producing stories for major magazines and news outlets that focus on science, conservation, and natural history. We wanted to find out more about his work and why he loves what he does.
photoED 31
Any photography or adventure disaster stories you can share? Any great shots by happy accident? Thankfully, I’ve never had any major accidents while working in the field. I’ve worked with a lot of animals that the public would consider dangerous but have never had any negative encounters. By far the most dangerous part of my job is getting to and from shooting locations while navigating the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the human world. A lot of the work I’m involved in now requires large amounts of time in the field. It’s day after day of repetition until all the elements come together. When you put that kind of time in, nothing really happens by accident. That doesn’t mean I’m not hoping for happy accidents in the future though! What photography projects can we look forward to seeing from you in the near future? I look forward to covering stories closer to home and revisiting familiar places from my childhood. Atlantic Canada is really an incredible place that has been underrepresented in popular media and I hope to shine a light on this region more in the coming years. TTP-PhotoED-Magazine-half-page-fall-2021.pdf
1
6/14/21
Ocean sunfish (Mola mola) off Halifax, Nova Scotia.
See more of Nick’s work at nickhawkinsphotography.com IG: @nickhawkinsphotography 3:05 PM
THE WORLD IS WAITING
Get outside with the complete line of Think Tank camera bags and accessories
www.thinktankphoto.ca
BackLight Elite 45L Photo Credit: Dan Carr
The real pros of reuse. These guys were total experts at taking vintage cast-offs and making them cool. Know where else you find the real pros of reuse? The Photographic Historical Society of Canada, of course. Our Trunk Sales are always ready to explode with incredible bargains in pre-owned camera equipment once COVID restrictions ease. Keep checking our website for dates, times and details.
www.phsc.ca
ROCIO GRAHAM
FOREST MIRACLES
40 photo ED
“Book II,” From the Illuminations and Engulfment series, 2020. photo ED 41
46 photoED
ANNIE BRIARD
IN POSSIBLE LANDS BY KATHERINE DENNIS In Possible Lands (2020) pairs superimposed photographs of the landscape—one captured 45 years ago by the artist’s father, and the other a present-day image taken by Annie Briard—that together evoke a sense of wonder with their vivid colours and majestic yet familiar subjects. But examined up close, they reveal a world altered by human action. On repeated long-haul hikes across Western Canada and the United States, the artist has been documenting a rapidly changing environment where, trip to trip, the evidence of climate change has become impossible to overlook. Briard was struck by the connections she saw between these photographs and an archive of slides her father took years earlier, as he traveled from Quebec to British Columbia while studying geology. Each image of In Possible Lands compresses the time gap between these two sources. By looking at the changing landscape, the artist meditates on these visible as well as unseen human impacts. The resulting photographic works offer us a medium to see into the future, asking: How do we read the past and understand the present to make predictions about what is to come? Due to the current global health crisis, many people have been forced to slow down and stay close to home. As a result, our land use, among myriad other things, has changed swiftly. In only one short month, we saw (temporary?) measurable reductions in air pollution. Our relationship to landscapes nearby—accessible through daily walks around parks such as Lafarge Lake in photoED 47
Coquitlam where this work was exhibited - as well as to faraway places, now visible only through digital technology, have been dramatically altered in a way so few people foresaw. In this stark reality, Briard’s artwork resonates as a reminder that the environment we too easily take for granted can be viewed anew. Annie Briard’s work challenges how we make sense of the world through visual perception. Creating lens-based and light-focused works, she explores the intersections between perception paradigms in psychology, neuroscience and existentialism.
48 photoED
This text was originally written for the Art Gallery at Evergreen, Coquitlam, where In Possible Lands was presented as a public art installation in 2020. In Possible Lands was also presented at Monica Reyes Gallery in Vancouver and at Art Souterrain in Montreal.
THE GALLERY SUBMISSIONS BY OUR READERS
CRYSTAL DREW Fredericton, NB
“I photographed this series as part of a study on still life photography. It got me thinking about how we use things like cut flowers to decorate our homes. Without us and our man made structures in the way, there would be more plant life. After we are gone, nature will always take over.”
BY A DYING S WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIEL SKWARNA COPYRIGHT 2021
54 photoED
SEA History has not been kind to this tiny former resort town. At 223 feet below sea level, it is the lowest community in the United States and one of the poorest. Over the last fifty years there have been many lows and not much else. Where did the highs of the 1950s go? The answer lies within the Salton Sea. Without this largest accidental lake, Bombay Beach wouldn’t exist today. The Salton Sea was created in 1905 by the engineers of the California Development Company to provide water to the Imperial Valley for farming. They dug an irrigation canal from the Colorado River (this area of the Sonoran is also known as the Colorado desert) to the Old Alamo River. When heavy silt build up slowed the water flow down, the engineers made a series of cuts in the bank of the Colorado River. These cuts sent an overwhelming amount of water flowing into the Salton Basin for two whole years (at that point, a dry lakebed) before repairs put an end to the flood. The result was the creation of the Salton Sea, California’s largest lake. It was fed by a combination of rain (limited effect in the desert), irrigation runoff from nearby farms, and outflow from the New and Alamo rivers (both highly polluted). Mid-century Bombay Beach boomed. Its sandy beaches and warm water attracted families during the 1950s and 60s. Celebrities like Rock Hudson water skied and Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lewis yachted with friends. Lured by the flocking masses, hotels, motels, casinos, yacht and golf clubs were established along the shoreline on both sides. By the late 1970s, however, the Salton ecosystem was in serious trouble. Lacking outflow, sufficient annual rainfall, and full off toxic farm runoff, the sea was packed with pesticides and saltier than the Pacific Ocean. photoED 55