There’s so much we don’t notice.
There’s so much we don’t notice.
A year in a garden conservatory showed me how it could hold worlds we would otherwise rush past.
In the Hours of Light, my current project, grew out of this exploration. I spent a year at Allan Gardens with a film camera, rekindling my personal awareness and artistic vision — a continuation of the approach behind my earlier work, Nature’s Idyllic Call.
I discovered that slowing down and noticing the subtleties of plant life can cultivate a kind of empathy, a deeper awareness of our world and how connecting with nature can strengthen our relationships with both the environment and each other.
This project affirmed that week by week, as I moved through the greenhouse and experienced its rhythms.
Allan Gardens Conservatory got me through the seasons, the long damp wet spring, the gray days of winter in particular. It was a refuge, a mini photography retreat every week. An urban green space where I could look at plants that leaned, endured the weight of another, or sometimes bloomed for only 24 hours before vanishing. Life quietly happening, mostly unnoticed.
But it’s a photographer’s job to see, to show your visual take, whatever your genre of choice. For this project, I switched from digital to analogue to slow down the creative process.
Taking the digital screen off the back of my camera forced me to frame more patiently before releasing the shutter. Slowing down the process made it methodical yet intuitive. It grounded me and same time taught me to surrender the results.
This work is for anyone who wants to see differently. To slow down for a moment. To feel the delicate pulse of life in a city greenhouse and maybe leave seeing your own world a little differently. I want you to interpret the photos in whatever way resonates with you. At the same time, the work is meant to inspire your desire for greater kinship with our natural world and how that informs our human relationships.
In the Hours of Light — part of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, May 1-31:
Part I — Ezra’s Pound 238 Dupont St
Part II — Supernova Coffee 897 Broadview Avenue
52-week analogue project | Prints available
Two spaces. One year of light. More details to come.