LANDSCAPE | INTERRUPTED is an elegiac portrait series captured amongst the remnants of our last old growth and post old-growth forests. These images were captured in forests in and around the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. A result of colonialism, rampant capitalism and runaway resource extraction, deforestation has decimated the existing old growth forests on unceded lands. This series is a recognition of the impact we have had on our immediate ecosystems and, perhaps, an opportunity to reconnect with what we lost.

Participants were invited to present themselves however they wished to be seen in these mythic landscapes – be it fantastical, mundane, clothed or otherwise. Accompanying each photograph is a reflection by each participant discussing their relationship to the land and an acknowledgment to their role in indigenous/settler relations. Through raw acts of defiance, this embodied portrait series seeks to celebrate the diversity of bodies, genders and identities across multiple spectrums. 

LANDSCAPE | INTERRUPTED was inspired by readings and conversations held during Creative Ecologies, the 2019 Presidents Dream Colloquium at Simon Fraser University. My intention was to capture moments of connection in our diminishing old growth. Deforestation has decimated the existing old growth forests in BC, and as of this summer only 32,000 square kilometres, or 5%, of existing forest in the province is old growth. 

This project was created and presented on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples – Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Nuučaan̓uł (Nuu-chah-nulth) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.