THIRDSHIFT 2021
Looking Glass is a series of photographic illustrations of archival images of Uptown Saint John that are printed onto transparent panels that line up with the current landscape and architecture. While viewers look through the image, they are transported back in time.
I hope that the viewer gets a sense of the massive transformations that have happened over the last century, and perhaps they will reflect on the transformations of their own personal landscapes. I hope it makes them consider the magnitude of the changes that have happened in their lifetime and that they weigh that against the knowledge of what came before them and what comes after.
There are moments every day when I remember how a landscape once was or see new development and wonder if anyone will remember how it looked before. The space we occupy here today is the same space that our ancestors occupied many years ago and since we can't hop in a time machine to see how they lived, photography will have to do for now.
1989.83.606
New Brunswick Museum - Musee du Nouveau-Brunswick, www.nbm-mnb.ca