Contributor and Co-Editor of North by West

For this special edition of Imaginations my co-editor Dr. Lozowy and I invited photographers and academics to collaborate and contribute to the idea of regionalism in North America. This approach was used to draw attention to Western Canada, a region that lacks a strong photographic identity. The result is a wonderful medley of thinkers and creators working in tandem or on their own to produce unique scholarly contributions on the Canadian West.

Preface

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“North By West is my first experience as a co-architect and co-editor of a visual and scholarly collaboration. I have had the good fortune to experience the editorial role as well contribute my own work to this collection. Like a proud parent I see this scholar/art project as an entity unto itself, ready to face the praise and scorn it must endure.”

Leaving to Return (essay)

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“A lumberjack and a farmer stand shoulder to shoulder facing East towards the Rocky Mountains. The lumberjack says, “Now isn’t this something to look at?” The farmer replies “But it’s blocking the view.” The Rocky Mountains act as a natural barrier between the boreal forest and the prairies, a formation to be breached by pickaxe and dynamite, and although passages between the two has been established, the differing geography poses more than a symbolic rift. Geography extends beyond a way of seeing and becomes a way of living. Distance has the ability to breed difference (cultural, economic, and social). As Author Brian Moore observes in The Luck of Ginger Coffey, geography is the enemy and the battle over it has yet to be won. Modifying Moore’s claim that geography is the enemy, we can interpret the enemy not simply as geography but as distance—nowhere else is this more observable than in studies of Canadian space (the Far North as well as the Canadian West).”

To get on board with North by West click here.