Parrsboro, on the Bay of Fundy (Five Islands, Nova Scotia)

After such an intense period of image making, all revolving around the Nude, it was almost a relief to spend a full day working with another subject. Parrsboro is on the Bay of Fundy, on the other side of the province. Famous for its high tides and rich fossil finds, the landscape around the small town is geological fantasy land, with millions of years of earth's history laid bare. It was these rock forms that I was interested in exploring visually.

6x7 cm film

I arrived to find the tide receding; it had already revealed a broad swath of the beach dozens of metres across (the tide in the Bay of Fundy is often over 8 metres in height). Little did I realize that only about a fifth of the tide had withdrawn; by the time I left the beach in the later afternoon, there was more then half a kilometre of beach exposed.

For most of the day, I spent my time walking along the base of the massive cliffs at the top of the beach. The sedimentary rock was buckled and turned on its side, exposing of beautiful striations of different tones and widths. It was these rock forms that I explored with the camera, marveling as much at the time displayed in the rocks, as the beauty of their forms.

6x7 cm film

I walked back from cliffs was along the bottom of the beach, where the ocean had most recently receded. I'd put the Mamiya RB away for the day, thinking there would be little on the flat rock and mud beach to work with. Then I came across one of the many small rivulets that ran down the beach - in the light of the setting sun, the water in these was dazzling as is babbled over the small rocks and debris that was being carried along with it to the sea. I quickly got the camera back out (not any easy feat, as there was no place to put the backpack while I set up the camera) and made a series of images of the water and mud.

6x7 cm film

On the whole, the day was a contrast to much of my earlier work this month; the images
came slowly, and with much consideration. As opposed to working with the synchronicity
between a model and the landscape, I was working with the lines of the natural world alone,
which are much more patient then even the best model! One the whole, the day was as much
about reflecting on image-making as it was about making images.