A Day of Photography (Polly's Cove, Nova Scotia)

The coastbetween West Dover and Peggy's Cove, just south of Halifax, is one of my favourite landscapes. Miles of glacier scraped land is scattered with boulders, flowing down to the Atlantic Ocean. The wild restraint of this landscape has always drawn me, and though I have worked with the figure in this setting before, it is far from drained of all its possibilities, and is a place I wish to return to again and again.

4"x5" film

Sasha and I didn't make too many images, but the two that were the most successful were certainly worth the afternoon's work. I made some colour images as well, of Sasha against a distant outcropping of rock - the images are decent, but the figure in them is so small; I think I went too far - a small nude overwhelmed by nature is wonderful thing, a bare blip of a figure in a landscape is a little silly. I have yet to make enlargements from the colour material, so I may be pleasantly surprised, but as it stands now, I think I will refrain from making images of nudes so far away.

4"x5" film

The image of Sasha on a large round boulder is another piece which I think marks a change in my work - the obvious parallel that I am making I think I would have chosen to ignore previously, writing it off as too simplistic. For whatever reason, taking risks seems to be the name of the game this summer.

6x12 cm film

After finishing on the West Dover Barrens, Sasha, Wendy and I drove to Peggy' Cove, home of the most over-photographed lighthouse in Canada. I have always loved the rocks there though, and while Sasha and Wendy sat eating ice cream and waiting for the sun to set, I explored and came across more images for Joy. The light was magnificent, with the sun low in the sky, perfect for reflections in pools of water, and lighting flat sheets of granite.