There are two objectives in my photographic practise: framing emotional narratives and framing decisive moments.
In 1952, Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote, “Inside movement there is one moment at which the elements in motion are in balance. Photography must seize upon this moment and hold immobile the equilibrium of it.”
This has become known as the ‘decisive moment.’ It implies not only knowing where and how to set the camera and when to press the shutter, but suggests this should not be a random decision.
I try never to approach such moments with the expectation that something pictorial, insightful, and emotional may be caught by chance if enough shots are taken from enough angles. Rather, my objective when taken a photograph is to recognize the narrative about to reveal itself in a motion and a moment, and anticipating it technically and consciously. In doing so, I am extending 40 years of experience as a documentary director/cinematographer into the challenges of still photography.
The exhibit title is a traditional paddling song of the voyageurs who ventured into the Great Lakes regions before Canada became a nation. For two successive autumns, in 2014 and 2015, a group of Toronto canoe enthusiasts and Canadian history buffs have portaged a small number of canoes for seventeen kilometers across the city along Davenport Avenue. There is historic significance to this portage which begins in Etienne Brulé Park beside the Humber River and ends at the Brickworks near the Don River. The route traces an old First Nations trail known as Gete-Onigaming or “the old portage” that once paralleled the shoreline of ancient Lake Iroquois.
As the official photographer for the November 15, 2015 event, I began to feel less like a documentarian and more of a storyteller, narrating two contrasting worlds centuries apart. As we portaged from mid-morning until dusk, past houses, shopping centres, and condo developments, the brightly coloured canoes spoke to me as visual commentaries on the urban landscapes that have replaced the forest trail.
However, their voices were not accusations or condemnations, after all, the recession of Lake Iroquois into Lake Ontario didn’t result from human activity nor was it destructive of the natural environment. If anything, the message the canoes gave to anyone who witnessed their passing, is one of encouragement – not to distance ourselves from the natural world as we go about our daily lives.