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Check out some Canadian photographers whose series work over the course of YEARS has culminated into these truly special results. For these artists, the presentation quality of their images is paramount. The stories they tell in this compact, high-quality form are worth every penny. Bathers by Ruth Kaplan, $65 Text by Marni Jackson and Larry Fink. Bathers, by Toronto-based photographer Ruth Kaplan, explores the social theatre of communal bathing. Ruth’s journey began in the nudist hot springs of California in 1991. She then travelled to Eastern Europe, seeking a more traditional form of the practice in the bath towns of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Romania. The unique display of individual body types and ages became a component of the work, as did the decaying architecture of the interiors. Later, she travelled to higher-tech spas in Germany, France, Italy, and Denmark, completing the series in 2002 in Moroccan hammams and Icelandic hot springs. Hedonism, sensuality, innocence, and social bonding are some of the underlying themes that have emerged. ruthkaplanphoto.com Registered The Japanese Canadian Experience During World War II by Leslie Hossack, $125 Leslie Hossack’s images in Registered are accompanied by her thoroughly researched and carefully crafted observations about the experience of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia during World War II when they were registered, rounded up, and removed. Registered consists of three installations: Vancouver newspaper clippings from the 1940s; individual registration cards issued by the RCMP; and interpretive photographs of buildings in British Columbia where the story played out. lesliehossack.com Ritual by Vincenzo Pietropaolo, $39.95 Documentary photographer Vincenzo Pietropaolo has made it his life’s mission to photograph the immigrant experience, working-class culture, and social justice issues. In Ritual, Pietropaolo brings together a retrospective collection of 150 photographs spanning 46 years. The book is an historic documentation of the Good Friday procession — an elaborate event that takes place annually in the streets of Toronto’s Little Italy, the largest Italian immigrant community in the world. vincepietropaolo.com Looking for Marshall McLuhan in Afghanistan by Rita Leistner, $43 In 2011, conflict photographer and critical theorist Rita Leistner embedded with U.S. Marines in Afghanistan as a team member of the experimental social media initiative Basetrack. What resulted is Looking for Marshall McLuhan in Afghanistan. Rita uses iPhone photographs she took during a military embed to apply the pioneering Canadian media theorist’s ideas on language and technology to contemporary warfare. An homage to McLuhan, this is a new kind of photo book. ritaleistner.com Yes Yes We’re Magicians by Jonah Samson, $34.95 Yes Yes We’re Magicians, co-published by Figure One Publishing and Presentation House Gallery, is a compilation of anonymous, vintage black-and-white photographs mostly found on eBay from the personal collection of the Canadian artist and writer Jonah Samson. Titled after a line from Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot, the book reflects on the absurdity of life through slapstick and dark humour, and a warm-hearted affection for the mysteries of human gestures. Jonah has created a carefully orchestrated narrative flow between various kinds of vernacular photographs. Whether a blurry snapshot or a formal portrait, the images draw out the uncanny and magical qualities of photographs. Free of any description, the compelling pictures are allowed to speak for themselves. thepolygon.ca #photobooks #womeninphotography #documentaryphotography #blackandwhite

Canada’s landscapes are as varied as the photographers that they attract. Some artists capture pristine expanses of Earth, while others see the landscape for its rugged details. Then there are those who photograph the landscape as a holding place of history and memory - capturing the interaction between the land and human emotion. Christine Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Siegfried are two such artists. Both of these Ontario-based photographers create images that centre upon the relationship between the land and memory, while beautifully employing historical processes to capture the interaction of our species with nature. We wanted to connect with both of these artists, and felt that their work shared some common threads. We took a closer look at what went on behind their individual aesthetics in order to explore a collaboration that may not exist in a physical realm, but could be created digitally. Above: Christine Fitzgerald, "Burial Ground, Canoe Lake" Below: Elizabeth Siegfried, "Off Season" What does “landscape photography” mean to you? Christine: That’s a tough question. I remember visiting, a few years ago with my older brother, a favourite swimming hole under a small bridge that stretched over a sleepy rock-laden river where my family would go during the summer. We would play, splash in the water and howl with laughter. To reach this special place, our father would drive along a rolling, dipping dirt road that darted around dark shady woods and past farm fields. My brother and I both had wonderful memories of playing there as kids. When we got there, we discovered that the river had essentially dried up. The small bridge was now surrounded by derelict houses and rusting cars, with graffiti covering the bridge’s foundation. We felt a profound sadness to see our beloved swimming hole transformed beyond recognition, the fond memories dissipated by an ugly present-day reality. We wondered if what we remembered had ever actually existed. Our sense of place and identity had been eroded, the landscape having become a jarring reminder that we too had changed over time. I think that for me, landscape photography provides a connection between our past and who we are today. Elizabeth: For me, landscape photography is not simply the shooting of traditional photographs of beautiful scenes of nature. It is a personal reflection of my feelings, mood and psyche. It is self-portraiture. The landscape images that I capture are most often taken in places where I am deeply rooted and connected. They can be statements on my relationship to the land or the fragility of the environment itself but always there is some significant bond between the land that I photograph and myself. You create images using both digital and historical processes. What factors lead you to photograph one landscape differently from the next? Christine: My vision for an image usually determines what camera, lenses and processes I will use to capture it. Also, time typically plays an important role in much of my work and influences the process that I will use. For example, I spent two years shooting a series of photographs in Algonquin Park, using the 19th century wet plate collodion process, large format cameras, vintage lenses and a portable dark room. At first, I experimented a lot with digital and large format film. But it wasn’t until I moved to the wet plate collodion process that I finally felt that my images expressed what I was seeing, where the past and the present co-exist. Elizabeth: I spent thirty years working in platinum and I still believe there is nothing more beautiful than a platinum print. (Wet plate is close!) Working with a historical process, I was able to capture the subtlety and layered beauty of the landscape. There is also a certain melancholy that can be captured with historical processes that is not always possible with digital. That said, in my work with both historical and digital processes, I find that my personal vision and sense of melancholy subconsciously attract images where there is a strong presence of the Japanese aesthetic concept called mono no aware. In the simplest of terms, this aesthetic is defined as “beauty tinged with sadness”. It is prevalent in my work, and although the platinum print is able to beautifully enhance this concept, sometimes certain landscape images need to be expressed in colour. In my case that means digital. My colour palette is routinely de-saturated, looking more like a historical process, yet that slight use of colour every so often adds a magical spark or mood to the image that makes it more successful. Above: Christine Fitzgerald, "Fallen Canoe, Found Lake" Below: Elizabeth Siegfried, "Cradle" Your work often illustrates a human interaction with the natural landscape. Why? Christine: Today, it’s pretty hard to find a landscape that has not been touched by humans. Just think of the impact of climate change, for example. Its adverse effects are everywhere. Signs of human activity can be found in every seemingly pristine landscape. At the same time, humanity has become increasingly removed from the natural world. More people are living in urban centers today than at any other time in our history. Yet we are intricately connected to the natural environment through our actions. In my work, I try to express how nature shapes who we are and how we impact our natural environment. I believe that landscapes reflect who we are. I am particularly interested in how human artifacts and other objects in a landscape can trigger memories and show the passage of time and the transience of life. Elizabeth: I often use human interaction (either myself or someone else) with the natural landscape to tell a narrative. My work is about family, the passage of time, and our relationship to the natural world around us. In my book, LifeLines, self-portraits were incorporated into nature to reflect those similarities that we as humans share with everything in nature - including life cycles and lifelines. The human interaction with the natural landscape underscores the idea that nature is extremely fragile and needs to be treated with reverence and respect. We are all connected. What is it about Ontario landscapes, nature, and the outdoors that inspires you creatively? Christine: I have a long-standing love affair with nature and much of my work reflects this. My fascination began when I was a child growing up in a small rural town in the Eastern Townships of Québec, and has never abated. I recall exploring the woodlands on the other side of the road in front of our house. Even as a young girl, I was aware that woodlands had their own plants, animals and ecosystem. Today, every time I explore the outdoors, I am reminded of how astonishing nature really is and that we are such a small part of a complex and interconnected world. It’s no surprise to me that I draw much of my inspiration from nature. Through my work, I also want to engage others and create an opportunity for them to experience the mystery, the beauty and the sense of wonder that nature has to offer. At the same time, I am deeply distressed by how humanity is impacting our planet. In a way, I think that’s why I use historical photographic processes in much of my work. They enable me to better reflect the imperfections of humans and the impermanence of life. Elizabeth: I am inspired by the Ontario landscape, nature and the outdoors because my heart is there. There is some land just outside of Algonquin Park where my great-grandparents built a camp at the turn of the 20th century - it is where I spent my summers as a child, and where I live now. It was there I learned to love and appreciate and respect the wilderness. There is a profound and spiritual connection to Nature there – it is a place where you can’t help but be a part of the natural world. It makes its way into the cabins, and you must move through it to get from place to place. My Ontario landscapes are my self-portraits. Above: Christine Fitzgerald, "The Turtle Club" Below: Elizabeth Siegfried, "The Big House Porch" Christine, if you were to pair one of your images with one of Elizabeth’s in an exhibition context, which would you select and why? Christine: I chose my image titled “The Turtle Club” from my Algonquin Park: Natural Histories series and Elizabeth’s image titled “The Big House Porch” from her series A Sense of Place. The J.R. Booth family built a private lodge called “The Turtle Club” deep in Algonquin Park. Eventually, it became a private fishing club with different owners over the years. It then fell into disrepair and was dismantled. Five fireplaces from the original lodge still stand today. For me, these fireplaces are poignant gravestones that mark the passage of time and evoke all kinds of nostalgic memories. Elizabeth’s intimate image, “The Big House Porch”, was captured at a family camp in Northern Ontario built over a hundred years ago. The empty old rocking chair on the porch triggered similar feelings of nostalgia for bygone times, transporting me back, in my memory and imagination, to a vanishing past. As with “The Turtle Club”, “The Big House Porch” is a reminder that our sense of self and place are not what they once were and underscores the passage of time in a contemporary reality. Elizabeth, if you were to pair one of your images with one of Christine’s in an exhibition context, which would you select and why? Elizabeth: That’s a difficult question because I see such a strong similar sensibility in our work, not only in landscape, but also in Christine’s Threatened images with her use of specimens from the natural world such as bones, shells and insects. Both Christine’s “Burial Ground, Canoe Lake”, and “Remains, Highland Inn” could be paired with my “Copland Steps”. Although Christine’s images are wet plate and mine is a Holga image, there are similar sensibilities in all three. All depict a reverence for a place, a quiet meditation. Each place has been neglected to a certain degree and there is the sense of time passed. The concept of mono no aware is in all three images – beauty tinged with sadness. Above: Elizabeth Siegfried, "Copland Steps" Below: Christine Fitzgerald, "Remains, Highland Inn" To view more work by Christine Fitzgerald, visit christinefitzgeraldphotography.com To view more work by Elizabeth Siegfried, visit elizabethsiegfried.com #womeninphotography #photobooks #ChristineFitzgerald #ElizabethSiegfried #canadianphotography #fineartphotography #landscape #landscapephotography #Algonquin #HistoricalProcess

My journey and eventual obsession with photography first started with our annual family road trips around Canada. The enjoyment grew when I took a photography class in high school, and got to experiment in the darkroom. I was hooked! After high school I filled my time with anything and everything photography related. I shot weddings and portraits, I did events and dabbled in baby photography, but my real passion and inspiration has always been with landscape photography, specifically the Canadian Landscape. One thing you learn when shooting landscape photography is that it can be risky. The most dramatic photos usually happen during bad weather and when most people are inside staying warm and dry. I am driven by the challenge of being outdoors and capturing the elements at work to craft a perfect photograph. I have contended with -45C while shooting ice cracks, dangled over the edge of a cliff looking down to bird colonies above the Atlantic Ocean, and successfully avoided getting run over by vehicles on a road while trying to take a self portrait with the northern lights. A few years ago, I took the plunge towards really living my passion and moved to the Canadian Rockies. I wanted to be inspired by the scenery around me, and work within it. I contemplated what “job” I wanted to do in the landscape photography field: write for magazines, sell prints, do commercial work, or teach. I always enjoyed helping others with their photography, so teaching was a natural progression. For the last five years, I have been teaching and guiding visitors around Banff National Park through my own photo tour business. It hasn’t always been easy, and not everything always goes to plan, but my passion for creating images and sharing the joy of the experience has been worth the risk. www.danilefrancois.com We featured Dani's work in our Winter 2017/ 18 issue: Landscapes, Real and Imagined. Get it in print HERE. #landscape #landscapephotography #womeninphotography #DaniLefrancois #photographycanada #canadianphotography #Canadianlandscape #AlbertaPhotographer

Growing up in Cape Breton, where relocation is a given, I moved many times. Each move was challenging, and often left me feeling uprooted. I turned to my photography to forge new connections and develop a sense of belonging. In later research I learned of the idea of a “primal landscape” – the notion that we form attachments to objects, traits and people in our childhood environment that we carry with us into adulthood. In our adult years, this “primal landscape” informs our feeling of belonging and rootedness, or sense of place. This theme forms the underpinning for much of my work. The impetus for this particular series, O Human Child, came out of a desire to better understand the place that I currently find myself, rural Saskatchewan. I turned to the writings of W.O. Mitchell, who is praised for establishing the literary geography of the prairies, in hopes that his words would help me gain a sense of the Saskatchewan identity. In his seminal book Who Has Seen the Wind, Mitchell depicts life as a child in rural Saskatchewan in the 1930s. Through stories of everyday events of a young boy trying to make sense of life, death, and God, he addresses universal themes in an authentic Canadian prairie voice. As I read, I began to question what life is like for children living in small prairie communities today. How do community and landscape shape their personal identity and sense of place? In a time when the online world has opened up for communication, learning, and entertainment, when family farms morph into commercial operations and rural communities shrink with migration to urban areas, how will their primal landscape impact them as adults? In this series, “O Human Child”, I take a contemporary look at children growing up in rural Saskatchewan and consider how the tensions and complexities of childhood today both contrast and mirror those of Mitchell’s time. In Who Has Seen The Wind, Mitchell’s young protagonist searches for the patterns and significance underlying the human experience as he learns about his world through the local people, animals, and natural forces. Though the theme of inevitable death is ever present, this novel is also a celebration of innocence, spontaneity, and natural freedom. This series invites the viewer to reflect on issues today’s youth grapple with in rural Saskatchewan. Are children today, as in Mitchell’s depiction, still learning about their world through story, animals, and physical exploration of nature? to ask “Siri” or “Google”? How does spontaneity and play (or lack thereof) impact their sense of place and identity? O Human Child showcases 18 black and white portraits of children of a similar age to those in Who Has Seen the Wind (between age 4 and 11 years) who live in rural Saskatchewan. The children are photographed in their own environments: in small towns or rural communities, on First Nations Territory and farms. Danna Lee stands fiercely in front of the lake as if protecting the water; Samuel poses with a goose after a morning hunt with his father; wearing her fashionable New York City t-shirt, Kaida tightly grasps the leash of her dog; Kennedy crosses her arms, intently staring into my lens with the town school that has been closed because of low enrollment in the background; and Nathan, who moved with his family two years ago from Korea, proudly poses with his soccer ball. See more at: verasaltzman.com #womeninphotography #fineartphotography #blackandwhite #Documentary #portraitphotography

I was born in Pakistan and have an Afghan background. My family moved to Canada when war made living in Pakistan impossible. After moving to safety in Canada, my parents’ expectations for academic achievement was high . Although my family is filled with doctors, engineers, businessmen, and math majors, pursuing the arts and photography was my career choice. Conceptual photography has become the perfect visual outlet for me to express my personal struggles and experiences. The New Worlds series echos a part of my personality and personal experience. I aim to illustrate the idea of isolation: a feeling of seclusion from the world, but a world transformed into a surreal environment filled with curiosities. In these worlds, imagined shapes added to existing places create a feeling of wonder. My colour palette reflects institutional structure: white, clean, simple, yet complex. My conservative background is portrayed through mood using colour, and the curious shapes and architectural elements reflect my experiences exploring Canada. The composition in each image in this series intends for viewers to experience wonder, as well as tension. I wanted to share my own experience visually, the struggle of adapting and understanding: a feeling of living in a box, yet being exposed to the outside world. We featured Adisa's work in our Winter 2017/ 18 issue: Landscapes, Real and Imagined. Get it in print HERE. www.adisasadaf.com #AdisaSadafRawi #womeninphotography #fineartphotography #canadianphotography #emergingartists #studentphotographer #OntarioPhotographer #photoshoptechnique

Horses and humans have a long history of working together. Horses have indisputably been integral to the development of modern society, and while their roles have changed over time, horses today remain indispensable to those humans known as "horse people". Horse people have existed throughout time as those who exhibit a psychological need for horses. Horses have always shown an interest in humans, and horse people mirror that fascination. What develops between the horse/human pair is an equal partnership that differs from the master/pet dynamic of other human/animal relationships. Shot from the eye of a horse person, “Equus” is an inside look at today's equestrian community. I am exceptionally proud to be apart of a sport that does not discriminate between athletes based on gender. The women featured in the video portion of "Equus" represent a hard working, strong, and determined group of female athletes and is a celebration of their unique stories and relationships. See more at: https://www.nicolairvin.com #emergingartists #canadianphotography #emergingcanadianartists #canadianphotography #photographycanada #equestrian #womeninphotography #internationalwomensday #femaleathletes #portraitphotography #novascotia

Martha Davis' project, ‘Dream Scenes!’ creates opportunities for senior citizens to do anything and go anywhere, through the magic of green screen photography. Martha reflects, “It’s great to watch the seniors cluster around the digital screen to view the photos, talking and laughing about what they’ve always wanted to do. My work creates a sense of community in the seniors’ home. I’ve now held 13 sessions at Christie Gardens and photographed more than 100 residents over the past year. This project has evolved from simple scenes that include the seniors, into active and complex images that tell a story directed by participants.” We featured Martha's project in our Spring / Summer 2018 issue, Manipulated Images, we thought we'd share a few more here- enjoy! “It’s so much fun going on the green screen. You can be as crazy as you want and go anywhere at all. I wanted to fly to heaven. I’m 95 and I’ve got nowhere to go but up!” -Trudy. In Marilyn’s 'Dream Scene', based on a dream, the steering wheel comes off her boat and she gets stuck on a rock at the edge of the falls. Margaret loves horses. When asked what would be her 'Dream Scene', she blurted out, “I’d like to ride a bucking bronco!” Wow! 92 years young! We added a dog running alongside to give it energy, and the dude watching adds a touch of humour. Barbara’s husband was quite a well-known golfer on the seniors circuit, and she’s very proud of him. She also golfs, and lamented that the putter she’s holding is too long for her. She feels disdain for Tiger Woods, here she’s portrayed shaking her fist at him. She calls him a “naughty boy” for his indiscretions. Edna wanted to have a toast with the Queen. Jennie says her grandkids think she’s an adventurer. “I have to prove it!" Pat wanted to go on safari. She wanted a cub in the photo, but was even more thrilled when we located six of them! We added the vulture to balance the composition, and to add a touch of suspense. Chamber trio rehearsing for their big debut Martha Davis is a Toronto based licensed teacher, children’s author, photographer and independent filmmaker. She has exhibited her photographs and screened her films nationally and internationally since 1978. Her children’s books have won awards and two of her films were nominated for Genie Awards. See more of her work on her website: greenscreenqueen.ca #digitalmanipulation #womeninphotography

In case ya missed our TORONTO 2018 PHOTO INSPIRATION Pecha Kucha Event- or wanna see it again, NPAC photojournalist Nick Iwanyshyn shares some of his favourite images and stories. In case you're not familiar - Pecha Kucha is a format where speakers only have 20 slides X 20 secs/ slide to share their story. It's TOUGH. But really really fun... #documentaryphotography #travelphotography #canadianphotography

In case ya missed our TORONTO 2018 PHOTO INSPIRATION Pecha Kucha Event- or wanna see it again, The FILM STARS PROJECT's MATTHEW PLUMMER + Film Star NATALIE + photographer EMILY HILL talk about how photography plays an important role in connecting with youth and talking about ideas around perception, assumption, diversity and dreaming big. Warning: You might shed a tear watching this one... In case you're not familiar - Pecha Kucha is a format where speakers only have 20 slides X 20 secs/ slide to share their story. It's TOUGH. But really really fun... To find out more about The Film Stars Project, find them online: www.filmstarsprojects.com/contact/ & https://www.instagram.com/fs_project/ #womeninphotography #emergingartists #fineartphotography

In case ya missed our TORONTO 2018 PHOTO INSPIRATION Pecha Kucha Event- or wanna see it again, Photographers Without Borders founder Danielle Da Silva talks about how the camera can do wonderful things, but also damaging things... questions about appropriation, gaze and questioning yourself - are you just taking? or giving back as a photographer? In case you're not familiar - Pecha Kucha is a format where speakers only have 20 slides X 20 secs/ slide to share their story. It's TOUGH. But really really fun... #womeninphotography #emergingartists #fineartphotography #documentaryphotography #travelphotography #travel