Southern Lights

The windswept pines, rocky islands, and rugged shores of Georgian Bay, longstanding symbols of the Canadian north, are iconic references to the landscapes that inspired the Group of Seven. This series extends the collective memory of those paintings, reminding us that the very idea of losing these vistas should send a shiver down the spine of every Canadian. Yet today, Ontario’s government continues to trade public land to foreign corporations, placing even the sites where Tom Thomson and A.Y. Jackson once painted under considerable threat of development.

Southern Lights is inspired by the surveyor’s self-levelling laser, a tool used to divide undeveloped land. Its projected grid cuts against the natural world, casting an unnatural glow across the trees, sometimes leaving an aurora-like vapour that suggests destruction already set in motion. Created in Georgian Bay, with the support of the Georgian Bay Land Trust and local guides, these photographs aim to spark a national conversation about how we steward our resources, protect wild spaces, and honour the landscapes that continue to define Canadian identity.