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The intersection of Man and Nature is a dominant theme in my photographs. I grew up in Windsor, the southernmost city in Canada, in a family sustained by this industrialized automotive capital, immersed in the materials and labour of manufacturing. However, for my whole life my most memorable times have been at the family “Camp” in northeastern Ontario. The camp is an off-grid cottage in an undeveloped provincial park – by contrast, a restorative refuge in nature.
The journey to the Camp follows an old logging road, cut through forest that for a century has been a hub of mining and logging operations. Several years ago, this road changed dramatically. Old sections were blocked-off, new routes were added, leading to new areas of logging activity.
I became fascinated by what was left behind: new, unintentional landscapes. Expansive vistas emerged out of the collateral damage. The borders between clearcut and forest are abrupt at first- open areas of chewed up earth and toppled trees abutting untouched woodland. Slash is stacked in orderly piles left beside the winding road like giant prehistoric beaver huts. Nature is peeled back, cut and scarred. Over time the process of healing begins (naturally or through the intervention of tree planting) and the borders blur. I attempt to find beauty and symmetry in the tension between destruction and regeneration, inviting dialogue about the conflict inherent in our dependence on nature for both resource extraction and emotional sustenance.