"Water" until October 31st
Without water, there would be no life on Earth. We need it to live, and yet we treat it with contempt: polluting, diverting, and even selling our most precious resource.
The Great Lakes watershed is one of the most beautiful places I know, and I want my work not only to celebrate it but also to act as a reminder of what we will lose if we don’t protect it.
I shoot landscapes because models will hold a pose forever, but light on clouds is there in one split second and absolutely gone the next. It’s beautiful and I get to see a lot of stuff that other people don’t. You have absolutely no control over Mother Nature and that’s what makes it challenging. One minute, it’s dull and there’s nothing going on, and the next minute everything changes.
My love of the outdoors comes from growing up around Georgian Bay on weekends and travelling with my family. I’ve fished, camped, and hiked the waters of the Bay and Lake Huron since I was young, and I love it fiercely, but the places that I loved as a kid have changed. I’m not talking about urban sprawl: I’m talking about the falling water levels in Georgian Bay, vanishing fish, changing shorelines. I want to take as many photos as I can before it disappears or becomes completely unrecognizable.
Right now is the calm before the storm, and I want to compel people to explore some of the places that I’ve been and loved. Through my website, I want to bring awareness of environmental challenges that we’re facing. It’s overwhelming what’s wrong. It’s overwhelming what we could lose in an instant. It could be a blowout underneath the Mackinaw Bridge. It could be one too many invasive species for our native fish to survive.
For the past three years, while I’ve been exploring these places and blogging on my website weekly (or at least close to it when there’s not really personal stuff going on), I’ve been holding back my very best photos…. of course! I've been planning a show and now it’s ready. I want to get my work out to people who might not follow the blog, and those who do and want to see more…. I want to raise awareness of this precious, threatened resource. And, of course, I want to put my art into the hands and onto the walls of people who will love it. You can buy a framed print from the show, as well as through the “Stock” area of my website.
“Water” is running (no, the taps are off.... otherwise, I'd fix them) until October 31 on the third floor at Glad Day Bookshop, 598A Yonge St, Toronto. (on the west side of Yonge, just north of Wellesley). You can visit any day between 11 and 5, later on weekends. Phone the shop beforehand to make sure the gallery is open. 416-961-4161. There are 27 new images, and I’m really proud of every one. Please stop by and take a look! And, while, you're there, take a look around Glad Day, the world's oldest LGBT bookshop, and buy a book!
