The HORIZONS portfolio is a series of colour photographs I started many years ago, when as a resident of Toronto, I found myself being drawn repeatedly to the shores of Lake Ontario.....to the vast, open spaces created by an inland sea. Over time, the Lake became my teacher, my guide and a testing ground I returned to during my evolution as a photographer and, more importantly, as a human being.
A few years ago, I moved to live beside Lake Ontario. Now, I'm completely immersed in digital photography and my work as a portrait photographer continues to unfold. Before my work day I usually go for a long morning walk by the Lake (with my camera and tripod) to explore the shoreline. From these explorations the HORIZONS portfolio has emerged in it's recent incarnation. Slowly, I'm waking up to the beauty and importance of Water, to the silent power of the wounded Lake that stretches in it's immensity from my doorstep to the infinity of the Horizon.
Water is life and if there isn't already enough strain on the waters of our planet after the Gulf oil spill, the recent nuclear catastrophe in Japan sends the clear, urgent warning that we are poisoning our water reserves. Considering we don't know where the point of no return in this process, we are gambling with the very foundation of our lives. Folly doesn't begin to describe this descent.
Yesterday I participated in a Water Ceremony at the Grand River near Six Nations Reserve, done to honour the life giving waters and to support a group of women, mainly from the Six Nations reserve, who are walking the length of the Grand River. After the ceremony one of the Elders shared with us a poignant message that she had received from the water....it said "we're still here doing our part, always giving, always supporting life as our Creator instructed us to do at the beginning of time; when is humanity going to do it's part ?" ...... Good question.