Expressive movement swirls and swoops through isolation of wildness, as nicholas x bent explores humanity's increasing distance from nature by physically, spontaneously – intentionally – moving with his camera through the wetlands and borderlands of the Saugeen region.

Using movement as a paintbrush on the canvas his camera provides, he's relating the sentience he finds in the wild and how it speaks to the wildness we all carry.

"I have always been fascinated with the structure of trees, the movements they can express and how the winds of time form them," said Mr. bent. "I have sought to find a way to capture these movements and expressions. There is a communication that one feels."

His process is called Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) and it's very popular in the Instragram world; bent applies his own original take on ICM, moving his body, arms and hands to focus on his subject, producing monochromatic images on fine heavy etching paper.

The resulting prints, prodcued in collaboration with Gabriel Photography in Collingwood, have the feel of hand-drawn charcoal drawings – and of the work done by the Photo Secessionists, an early 1900s movement that used photographic pictorialism to manipulate imagery, reflecting the artist's subjective vision.

"I wanted to express the disconnect so prevalent in our culture towards nature," explained Mr. bent. "I wanted to give expressions to nature that allow the viewer to connect and feel, to look inward, to see the subject as a sentient being.

"I suppose these images also speak to the wildness within us – the isolation one feels when they feel like they are the other – different."

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Mr. bent and the Tom Thomson Gallery are offering an ICM workhsop in early January, details will be posted on the gallery's website when available.

isolation of wilderness, by nicholas x bent, hangs at the Tom Thomson Gallery until January 28, 2023.

The Durham Art Gallery presents Polar Passion: Melting Away, a photographic exhibition by artist Willy Waterton.

Willy Waterton at the opening of his solo exhibtion Polar Passion – Melting Away Sunday, Nov. 27, in the Durham Art Gallery

Mr. Waterton's approach to our communal concern for climate and the environment reflects the 35 years he reflected our community as an award-winning daily newspaper photojournalist at the Owen Sound Sun Times. But his work is a lot more than 'f8 and be there'. He's taken that proverbial step closer, and brought us with him.

To the viewer, the 'being there' is an essential part of Mr. Waterton's photography. The immediacy and tensions of the images bring the viewer right into the frame, an intimacy Mr. Waterton's been able to share through a lifetime on the land from growing up on a farm south of Rockford to his present home community in the Kemble area.

"I first spent time in what is now the Bruce Peninsula National Park when I was in high school and the outdoor club would go camping in fall at what was then a very young Cyprus Lake Provincal park," Mr. Waterton said. "The camp grounds were just being developed, that would have been in the early 1970s."

An official connection with the Bruce park system brought him access and experiences that have informed his work as a whole.

"I was the first contract photographer for the national park which gave me the opportunity to explore areas of the park and Tobermory islands that were off limits and hard to get to for the public," Mr. Waterton said.

His straight shooting and lightning reflexes square the viewer off to large canvas prints, dramatic representations of climate change in iconic landscapes. The prints, produced at Parson's Foto Source in Owen Sound from Mr. Waterton's digital files, give a clarity and depth that enhance these very strong images; in-person viewing produces a deep response. The canvasses were stretched and framed by LeeAnne’s Custom Frame in Rockford, one of their last projects before retirement this autumn.

The Durham Art Gallery hosted a two-hour opening reception for Polar Passion on November 27 following the gallery's Annual General Meeting.

Close to 100 people came to show their appreciation for Mr. Waterton's work, according to gallery director Jennifer Norman, and the staff was overjoyed at the response.

"It was a two-for-one celebration day," said Ms. Norman. "From what I've been told, it was one of the best attended AGMs in the gallery's history, so the community is finally coming back to life!"

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Polar Passion: Melting Away consists of 13 pieces – 12 from polar regions and one of Saugeen Bruce Peninsula.

The exhibition runs at the Durham Art Gallery until January 29, 2023.

 – by Hub staff
David Galway