Range (2008-2021)

In recent history, the significance of Western Canada’s Mountain National Parks has extended beyond the vastness of their scenic beauty. For the wildlife and vegetation that inhabit their valleys and slopes, they are a refuge from the pressures of encroaching industry. They provide recreational pleasures and work opportunities for locals and visitors from far and wide. They are a source of pride for the ambassadors that promote their virtues and act as an anchor point to our national psyche. The Mountain National Parks (Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho, Jasper, Banff, Kootenay and Waterton Lakes) are diverse in their geographic terrain and, in its many facets, Parks Canada attempts to reflect that diversity in promoting and preserving these landscapes.

With this as a point of entry, I began the series of photographs Range in the summer of 2008. For three years, I completed month-long photographic surveys of the seven Mountain National Parks in British Columbia and Alberta, hiking over one thousand kilometres in the process. In the tradition of many of the mountain photographers that preceded me, I documented my travels with a large format field camera. In 2018-2021 I plan to revisit these sites and, with the same equipment and film stocks, re-photograph each location. Through drawing attention to subtle environmental shifts in the landscape, I will draw into focus the changes ten years brings to these ranges and how different the notions of photographic and geological time really are.