Photographs for this series are from Big Hill Springs Provincial Park and Crimson Lake Provincial Park in Southern Alberta. They were taken from July, 2016 to July, 2018 with a Nikon D90 using a NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8 lens.
This series was inspired by the compositions of a Montreal-based jazz pianist and composer, my dear friend, Marianne Trudel. It is influenced by, and is a response to, songs from three of Marianne’s albums: Le refuge (Trifolia), La vie commence ici, and Espoir et autres Pouvoirs.
In the series responding to Le refuge, the images are often grounded in single objects: mushrooms, moss sprouts or petals that metaphorically explore human relationships. In contrast, my response to La vie commence ici–an album that uses complex, experimental, reverberant sounds to create a more searching and textured sound–was more chaotic, using layers of lace-like texture and colour organized by a tightly controlled depth of field. The photographs inspired by Espoir et autres Pouvoirs blend the visual elements and styles of the previously mentioned albums, returning to lyrical, metaphorical content that verges on chaotic. These images illustrate extreme, but controlled, chaos, and were created during a period of intense self-reflection and revaluation. The images reflect the anxieties behind my struggle as I search for balance.
I heard Marianne’s music for the first time at a live concert in 2016, and realized that her surprising, sometimes chaotic, always hauntingly beautiful music often uses sounds from the natural environment to anchor her improvisations, and that her relationship with nature reflects my own.
The colourful, organic environmental objects I work with, and the challenge of photographing this material outdoors, present innumerable opportunities for visual metaphors that express the intricate and delicate nature of our lives.
This artistic relationship is evolving and moving full circle. Marianne is currently composing pieces inspired by these photographs. Our goal is to present the richness of this diverse collaboration in a gallery or even an abandoned factory…who knows what we will come up with. My photographs will be digitally projected or hung with a Steinway grand in the room. Marianne will perform music which inspired my photographs, previously composed music inspired by my photographs as well as integrating freshly improvised pieces, all in the moment!
Links to Marianne Trudel’s music videos:
