On Frozen Ground

This photo series was created in the Thompson Okanagan region, on the traditional and unceded territories of the Nlaka’pamux, Syilx, Secwepemc, Simpcw, and St’at’imc Peoples. Over the Family Day weekend, my family stayed at a quiet ranch in the snow, where I used a SMENA 8M manual camera to capture a performative action.

After rolling in the snow to cover my body and lying still, my husband, Jesse, photographed me from all sides. Later, I continued searching the land for emerging symbols. The camera’s imprecision required presence and patience; each image became a contemplative act shaped by chance.

Situating myself as a white settler, woman, mother, and lifelong helper formed the starting point of this work. The barbed wire fences I photographed reflect the commodification and control of land under settler-colonialism. Born on the Prairies to French, German, and Austrian ancestry, I am shaped by lands marked by settler colonialism and multiple displacements.

Belonging—and the struggle for it—continues to inform my practice. My own sense of displacement is woven through these images. I have been exploring the freeze state of white settler womanhood, seeking ways to thaw silence and complicity. The camera’s blurriness captures ambiguity and avoidance.

Blurriness also dissolves boundaries—between body and earth, between bodies in the act of connecting. These images depict hibernation and preparation. Guided by anti oppressive, relational, and trauma informed principles, I seek warmth, revival, and a way to rise, carrying the earth’s strength with me.