David Sorcher's PhotoWorld: January 2021

As years go, 2020 might be one best left forgotten. It was, after all, the year of the great pandemic (still not behind us yet) and some seriously twisted politics that i won't even bother to mention. Many would probably feel just fine closing the door on it forever. However, it has been my tradition, as with many photographers, to highlight my favourite work from the previous year with a gallery of photographs. I feel compelled to let that tradition stand.

I am blessed living where i do. While Covid has certainly played it's deadly hand here, Nova Scotia has had relatively few cases and our lockdown periods have been keep to a minimum. Living rurally has provided even more safety and protection. So i have been fairly free to get out and about photographing my local environments without much restriction. Public events were cancelled, of course, but the beaches remained open, but for a brief period at the start of it all. This year did, however, put a serious dent in growing the revenue producing side of my photography business. The year before, my first full year as a resident, things went pretty well. While i wasn't feeling completely secure with my career in this new homeland of mine i had at least established some repeat clientele and was getting paid assignments on a regular basis. Then Covid hit. The local weekly i was freelancing for sent out a mass email informing us all they would no longer be using our services. And since most of the contract work i was doing for Communications Nova Scotia was public funding announcements, that dried up as well simple because the government, wisely enough, was not holding public events in these pandemic times. This obviously left a lot of free time on my hands. While i cannot say that i actually made the best use of that free time i also can't say i didn't enjoy having it. Certainly it did not stop me from making photographs, as this perhaps excessively large gallery reveals, even if they were mostly ones that have yet to earn me any income. Still, i am hoping that in this new year i will be able to kickstart my career and begin to find new ways to sustain myself once again with my photography. Keep looking forward!

(please click on images for a larger gallery view)

Welcome to my Covid Year

The New Normal

A Peek at the Future

Ghost of Christmas Past

Not surprisingly, much of early 2020 began with cold, ice and snow. While many Nova Scotians tend to head south for the winter, the season provides an opportunity for subject matter that i am rather fond of shooting.

In spite of Covid, 2020 provided more that one issue worthy of raising our voices in protest about. This first group of images shows demonstrators in Halifax protesting the government's decision to sell Crown Land at Owls Head, a unique and fragile ecosystem once slated for protected status, to an American developer who wants to build a golf course there. This took place pre-pandemic so face masks were not in play, though we did have to contend with the biting chill of one of the coldest days of the year.

2020 was, of course, the year of George Floyd. Though police have been getting away with killing unarmed people of colour for a very long time, this one seemed to reverberate around the entire globe. Hundreds of mostly masked people turned out in Bridgewater in June for a socially distanced demonstration of solidarity.

Covid-19 certainly wasn't the only tragedy of the year as Nova Scotia bore witness to the largest mass killing by a single individual in Canadian history. While many questions remained (and still do) about the shooter and his connection with the RCMP, as well as the manner in which the RCMP handled the entire affair, at this point in time the government had no intentions of conducting a public inquiry into the shootings. Angry Nova Scotians, including family members of those killed, turned out at Justice Minister Mark Furey's MLA office in Bridgewater to demand an inquiry. That inquiry was finally announced in October and is currently underway.

Thomas Webber, whose son Joey was a victim, comforts his daughter Laura as the names of the dead are read from the Citizen's Bandshell in Shipyard's Landing.

Meanwhile, at home in the backyard, spring was afoot...

My ongoing love affair with Nova Scotian rock formations and local geology continued this past year. I have often remarked that these rocks seem to speak to me in some ancient and intangible language. I love finding abstract and occult imagery in these compositions.

I also added new images to another longtime, ongoing project: Future Fossils. I do understand this project might seem somewhat dark to some, but at the heart of it is an exploration of the natural cycles of life and death and how each feeds the other. The turn of the wheel is eternal.

The Whale Watchers

My love of old graveyards came together with my interests in local history and First Nation culture when i learned of this very old Native/Acadian cemetery in Petite Rivière that is actually walking distance from my home. Grave markers have been dated back to the late 1500s at this site! The grave below is a bit later, early 1800s and probably Acadian. I attended this ceremony to honour these ancestors on a somewhat chilly October morning.

If you have followed my work you know that i have a great deal of background photographing live music, but even in pre-pandemic times i was not finding much opportunity for that kind of work here in Nova Scotia. So it was indeed very exciting to land a job shooting local Jazz vocalist Pat Watson performing a socially distanced concert at St. Mark's Place along the LaHave River. Thanks Pat!

This has become an regular thing for me; photographing objects found at large being held in my own hand. Maybe there is a larger body of work that will develop out of this. There are a couple more of these to follow in this gallery.

Wild Beach Peas

I experienced my first "fogbow" this summer and fell in love with watching and photographing Kite Surfing.

Child's Play

The Clam Digger

Father & Son

Ferry Crossing Sunrise

Ferry Crossing Sunset

Moonrise in the Growing Fields

House at Arties Cove

The Sun Worshippers

Beach Ballet

RV Camper Kids

I have always enjoyed the art of portraiture, but frankly, with all the social distancing of the past year, i did not really find a great deal of opportunity to pursue it. But here are a few of my favorites from the year.

Imogen

Brock

Jacob

Bock

Logan

Brian

I would be remiss if i left out our annual hurricane (at least we seem to be getting one a year so far). Fortunately Teddy did not hit us all that hard. Still it is difficult to keep from wanting to go down to the shore to watch when a big storm rolls in.

It was a strange Autumn for colours. At first it seemed like this past year would be a big disappointment. At least it didn't seem to be exactly on schedule. But while it never really got as spectacular as i have seen in the past the season was at least satisfying in the end.

2020 did FINALLY get me back to Gaff Point! Use the search engine for this page if you would like to see more from my rather large body of work on this fantastic hiking tail. This is still my favorite photographic hike in our area, but we had not taken the trek since before we moved here, so it was long overdue. It was great to get back on the trail and i even saw aspects of it i had never seen before.