Idea of the North


Decaying shipwreck on the sea ice visited by frigid tourists bruised by the ride in sledges pulled by skidoos.  Definitely worth the trip for the shot. 

Well, Joe and Ken, in this blog series I have only lightly sparred with the serene, minimal landscapes of Lauren Harris. My understanding of the North had been moulded by his brushstrokes and, in spite of its two-dimensionality, his vision remains compelling.  

The dark line on the horizon is where the sea ice meets the water of the bay.

Yet the multi-dimensional reality, in my experience of Churchill, places one’s soul in the centre of an ephemeral, voluminous tent filled with the active, artful acrobats called history, culture, and nature.  

An inukshuk -- human-made and human-shaped landmark.

That is, Harris's paintings lack the fine human inhabitants and their stories; his canvases ignore aurora, sun dogs, huskies, and tundra chickens; they skip the presence of metal shed architecture and beaded decorations on huge and cozy fur mitts. His whites and blues suggest the minty, cold breath of the North but they don’t reveal the scrunch of boots on crisp snow.  

Find the little Ptarmigan fowl -- affectionately known as the Tundra Chicken. (The video is larger if you select 'open frame in new window' in the right-click menu.) 

So on this very last post please enjoy this eclectic selection of images so unlike Harris's. Mine lack the power of the photographs in the handsome book "Polar Obsession" by Paul Nicklen; his creation is like a marvel of a wedding cake. My pictures, here and throughout this series, are more like an affordable box of chocolates. They reveal that beauty in the polar environment is less monolithic, and consists of more diverse subjects, than expanses of frozen water.  Perhaps they will help you, as they did me, grapple with your own idea of the North.

Vehicles:






Sun and Sky:


Wonderland: 









Comments

  1. BonnieJAPANMay 19, 2026 at 1:08 PM

    Beautiful photos! Your remarks create the feeling of being in an other-worldly landscape, which it surely is.
    Is the white animal a rabbit or some kind of bird?
    The first photo of the hull of a ship looks like the one they used in an opening sequence in Frankenstein. I wonder if they did.

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    Replies
    1. Galaxy GalMay 19, 2026 at 9:23 PM

      Thanks Bonnie! I updated the caption to include the word "fowl" for the ptarmigan :-) The ship in Frankenstein was filmed in a downtown Toronto sound stage! The dog sled scenes were shot on Lake Nipissing, Canada. But Churchill would have been a decent choice, eh? A nice film that does some shots in Churchill is The Snow Walker (Trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc5o7UKVFLM)

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