Faith and Rituals: Mexico

Recently, I took a long-overdue sun vacation in western Mexico, in the touristy-but-still-an-actual-town of Sayulita. Naturally I took my camera(s), but I didn’t think they would see anything more than a few obligatory sunset over the ocean waves scenes.

Now, I was hesitant to mention this trip at all because I aspire to much more than “here’s my holiday snaps”. But, as happens so often when you put yourself out there (or over there, in this case), wonderful and unexpected things happen. And those moments are when you most need a camera with you to feel and see it most deeply.

The end of the year brings the Christmas season, and Mexico is a deeply spiritual as well as a very vibrant and dynamic country. By complete chance, I was blessed to see a few passing scenes that felt very much at home with my long-running personal project on faith and ritual. Kicking off with a raucous Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the town square, followed shortly after by the most charming Santa Claus Parade I ever photographed (and I have photographed a lot after 20+ years of newspaper photography work) and culminating with a reverent Christmas Eve Mass, it felt like I was given far more than I could have even scripted. But isn’t that the best of what travel can give? The reality of life is that you can’t predict or control what happens, and the best of photographers (or writers, or musicians, or…) understand that. I’m not saying I do, but I do know I got a glimpse of that idea.

As the photos in this post show, there was a lot more than the events I mentioned above. And as dazzled and enamoured as I am with Mexico and its people, I know that I barely gathered a drop of the ocean of history, art, culture and depth of this wonderful country that my home in Canada shares this continent with.

A raucous celebration for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Sayulita, Mexico. Guadalupe is a central symbol for Mexico, and the Feast ritual celebrates the sighting of the Virgin Mary to a man in the 16th century.

Children from local schools take part in the annual Santa Claus Parade in the town square of Sayulita.

A boy gets his wings in preparation for a children’s procession at the Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, in Sayulita.

Children’s procession, main plaza in Sayulita, Mexico.

A church volunteer opens the windows of Sayulita’s Catholic Church for another day.

The piñata is a common Christmas fun activity for children in Mexico, here seen in front of the town’s Catholic Church located in the main plaza.

A woman holds the doll of the Christ Child, to be placed in the Nativity scene of the Catholic Church during a Christmas Eve mass.

A hawker carrying souvenirs to offer to tourists on the nearby Playa de los Muertos (beach) walks along a path through a cemetery along the oceanfront in Sayulita. Mexico is renowned for its annual Day of the Dead, which exemplifies the country’s unique approach to death and recognizing its place in life.

One of the freelance clients I’m most happy to work with regular is the University of Winnipeg Wesmen Athletics . Apart from being a big benefit to the community and a huge part of students’ time in academia, it’s just an amazingly fun day in a location studio photgraphing dozens of individuals - each with unique personalities but all brought together by athletics.

This year was no exception. In this blog entry, here’s just a few of my favourites from the 2024-2025 Wesmen roster.

A Sea of Orange

Earlier this week was Orange Shirt Day which is a very visible part of Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. In a city whose past and present is heavily comprised of First Nations people, it’s a big occasion and that was shown most visibly with a procession throughout the city’s downtown.
Organized by the Wa Say Healing Centre this year was the 4th annual march, and coincidentally the first year the day is a statutory holiday in the province of Manitoba (it’s been a federal holiday since its inception in 2020).

I’ve gone out to photograph this event every year. For me, I experience things more deeply when I engage my passion for photography and tell stories with my cameras. We all have our own ways of paying respects to a day like September 30 — this is what I feel is my best way.

A boy waves a huge flag reading Every Child Matters at Winnipeg’s famous Portage & Main intersection while awaiting the start of the 4th annual Healing Walk, September 30th.

A woman quietly sings and plays a drum as thousands of people walk by on Portage Avenue during a Healing Walk on Orange Shirt Day.

Purple and orange at Portage and Main, during the 4th annual Healing Walk on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg.

A couple greets with smiles and waves amid a sea of orange shirts at Portage & Main, with the future Metis Centre in the background.

Thunder the horse, led by Cora Morgan, attracts a shy smile from a girl walking alongside, Monday afternoon during the 4th annual Wa Say Healing Walk in downtown Winnipeg.

A small goat joins Thunder the horse on a procession on Portage Avenue, Monday afternoon. A crowd of thousands made their way from the historic Forks Market through the downtown to a powwow to mark Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Pride Parade: 2024

This weekend saw the big event for Pride Month in the city - the Pride Parade, winding from the Legislative Building through downtown to the Forks.
It was a fun mix of my former genre of daily newspaper photography, street photography and impromptu portraiture. Anytime plenty of people gather, especially for a positive purpose, it’s a great place for photography.

One of the many corporate participants unfurls a large Pride flag while queueing for the start of the 2024 Winnipeg Pride Parade.

A group of spectators watch the parade unfold along Memorial Boulevard from the parkade of the former Bay building.

A different view of spectators in the former Bay building parkade watching the Pride Parade unfold on the street below them.

A child wearing a Pride necklace waves support for the procession in front of him on Memorial Boulevard.

One of the many revellers makes their way along a crowded Memorial Boulevard.

Few places are as rich and interesting for classic street photography as a parade. The art, expression and spirit of a Pride parade make it even more productive for the ‘flaneur’ approach to photography.

Motorcycles, and a casual-attire Spiderman, are seen at the head of the 2024 Pride parade.

Where it starts each year - people waiting to take part gather in Memorial Park, across from the Manitoba Legislature. This ‘bardo’ state, of in-between or waiting for what comes next, is always one of the most interesting places to look at as a photographer, in my experience.

Memories of Summer

With the Victoria Day long weekend here, it seems a good time to share a few images I came across randomly while (trying) to organize my sheets of negatives and contact sheets from the past decade or two.
The Victoria Day weekend is sort of the unofficial start to summer and after the kind of winters we usually get in this part of the continent it’s one that means a lot to Canadians. When I was living and working in Brandon another hallmark of summer was the annual Summer Fair and especially the carnival midway.

It was a pretty terrific place to be a photographer, as you’d see a wide variety of humanity parading before you, all complete un-self conscious and not terribly concerned with a photographer. In other words, an ideal place to do street photography and (beyond that) the classic ideal of the ‘flaneur’ . I always found it a wonderful place to people-watch in a setting where a lot of the closed guardedness of daily life would fall away and people could just have fun.

The pictures shared here today were taken on medium-format film on a Hasselblad camera - not the most ideal set-up for street photography but one I’d used before in travelling to Nepal - I wanted these pictures, taken around 2014, to stand apart from the usual newspaper coverage or even street photography type of images. I set out to try photograph what it felt like to go to the carnival, in a slightly different way - a detached yet empathetic observer.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! I’ve enabled comments on this post, or head over to my account on Instagram or Foto and share there.

Blessing of the Baskets - Continuing the search for Faith and Rituals

In my last post, I’d mentioned about continuing the personal project on faith and the pursuit of ritual - it’s interested me for a long time, in photography, how people across a wide variety of cultures, religions, places etc. all share this common desire for rituals.

The most recent instalment of this project came this weekend, with the Ukrainian ritual called ‘blessing of the baskets’, a high point in the religious year and a hallmark of Easter on the Orthodox calendar for Ukrainians.

It was a return for me, as I’d photographed this ritual previously, and the venue - the beautiful and historic St. Vladimir’s and Olga’s Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral - was one of the very first I’d photographed in when starting this project years ago.

The baskets contain food, especially bread which is relevant given Ukraine’s abundant wheat fields, and candles to spread light and receive blessings including sprinkling of holy water.

It was a fitting event to signify rebirth of this project, and I hope to continue it in the months ahead, as well as give clarity to its purpose going forward and exhibiting it in some form, also.

If you have ideas for various rituals to depict in photographs, whether it be small and ordinary and everyday, or large and grand occurring on special occasions - I’d love to include them. I’d also love to include a lot of diversity in this project, showing humanity’s shared urge to express itself through ritual.
Please contact me if you have suggestions - my website has a Contact section, I can be reached at email via talk@colincorneau.com or via Instagram

An Easter rebirth

This has been posted here before, but several years ago I started a project about faith rituals - I was just interested in how across all different kinds of cultures, religions, time periods and geographic areas people somehow felt the need to perform various rituals and actions as an expression of faith.
I photographed more variety than I thought possible in a mid-sized Canadian city, but the past year or so it’s been dormant.

Fittingly, in the season of Easter a rebirth of sorts occurred with 2 events connected to the Christian holiday. The festival of Salubong, a procession of religious statues held by the local Filipino community, was held on Easter Sunday morning and the 35th annual Way of the Cross procession was held by the local Catholic archdiocese on the morning of Good Friday.
Salubong was especially gratifying to photograph, as it was the first ritual I photographed in 2018 when I first conceived of this project.

From now, I hope to continue where I left off with this project and pursue other rituals in a variety of faiths. I’m as interested in the regular commonly held ritual - aspects of the everyday like a Christian baptism or candles in a Hindu puja or prayers in a Jewish or Muslim service - as I am in special events or rarer holidays.
If you have a suggestion for this project, please use the Contact form on my website to send me an email, or message me via my Instagram account if you prefer.

A congregant at St. Edwards the Confessor Catholic Church takes part in a procession early Sunday morning as part of the church’s Salubong event.

The sunrise shines over the cross marched on a procession in the 35th annual Way of the Cross Event, Friday morning at the University of Manitoba campus.

Hundreds of people walk quietly in the Way of the Cross event, on Good Friday morning, the only sound moving over the crowd a repeated prayer chant.

The cool twilight of the early Easter morning is punctuated by the warmth of a candle held by an adult chaperoning a children's choir in the city’s North End during the Salubong event.

Canada geese waddle away from a procession of hundreds quietly marching behind a wooden cross on Good Friday.

One of the stations of the cross marks a pause in the 35th annual Way of the Cross, Good Friday morning.

A children’s choir ascends the steps of St. Edwards the Confessor church on Easter Sunday morning.

Salubong event, Easter Sunday morning.

Salubong procession, Easter Sunday morning.

In the studio with Duo526

Recently, the musicians behind Duo526 contacted me for updated photographs for their increasingly-busy professional schedule. I had first known the violin half of the duo from photographing Kerry DuWors in Brandon, MB in her work as a dynamic professor at the respected School of Music .

She and pianist collaborator Futaba Niekawa really stand out to me (despite me being completely without any musical background) because their spirit and passion is so obvious — it’s a mindset that’s taken them and their exploration of music literally around the world, along with a strong emphasis on education and mentoring to students. Beyond the huge talent that’s plain to see, they have fun!

It was certainly fun working with the duo 5 years ago for the first time, and it was even more so this month for the sequel. The handful of photos here are just one note in a great long composition from our shoot together - Kerry and Futaba, thank you!

ADDED NOTE - I would be missing a point not to mention our fantastic venue, the Walker Studio Exchange in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District. Wide open spaces, great windows and excellent owners make it a must-see.

Rotating Back (to film)

Recently I had the chance to use a classic studio camera in a terrific studio. The Mamiya RB67 is a film camera that any commercial photographer who was working in the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s would know of. Along with the excellent lenses as in other Mamiya cameras the big advantage of this camera is the film back rotates to either landscape or portrait view — RB obviously is for Rotating Back.
This lets a photographer change quickly between views, without having to waste time moving the whole camera around either in hand or on a tripod. And it makes a difference practically, especially when photographing portraits.

I don’t like to get bogged down in gear talk, though — to me cameras are tools to make an image, not to fetishize/collect/pontificate over, and the image is what drives (or should drive) photography. In terms of the mechanics, these images were made to test out this camera, its lenses and how it works with in-studio lighting; I’m a big fan of photographing with film (when time allows) and for those who think like I do on that topic, these images were made with Ilford Photo’s wonderful (and underrated, in my opinion) Kentmere Pan 100 medium-format black-and-white film.

Photographer Andrew Sikorsky — find his work at: https://andrewsikorsky.com

Potter and artist Christina Sikorsky

Portrait of Samantha. This was an impromptu photo, but often times those can yield the best results - spontaneous reactions and unplanned efforts can help us avoid ‘getting in our own way’, creatively.

Artist Thor Aikenhead.

A Day On The Ocean

“A bad day fishing is better than a great day at work” Maybe so, but a day on the water in Newfoundland with friends beats it all.

This week I was on the waters near Conception Bay South thanks to the generosity of friends in Newfoundland to try my hand with a reel and fish for cod. For someone who didn’t see the ocean until well past his teen years and has never actually fished before, I fully expected and accepted to be an object of amusement (OK, pity) but let the record show that I caught the biggest one that day! Not bad for a flatlander.

The cod fishery is just one of the many aspects of Newfoundland that make it a place truly its own, like nowhere else in Canada. It has a long fascinating history with some dramatic modern history and, much like wheat in my birthplace Saskatchewan, has shaped the culture there for many, many many generations.

I’ll happily state I love Newfoundland and it’s the people that make me so quick to say it. Yes, the landscape is spectacular and the ocean is powerful and compelling - but culture, history and art is made by people. So, to the people who have so generously helped this come-from-away build this respect and admiration - thank you.

Want to feel small? Just head out on the Atlantic Ocean!

Captain Gerry lets out line on a wooden reel on the back of his 20-metre boat “Salt Water Joy”

Gerry takes a seat at the interior controls of his boat. The life aquatic clearly agrees with him, as he has a steady hand and a ready supply of jokes even into his 80’s sailing the waters of Conception Bay South.

Joe Chase lets out some line while on the hunt for some dinner in Conception Bay South.

Gerry puts his feet up on the trip out to cod fishing waters aboard his boat, “Salt Water Joy” The gentle and soft spoken captain has sailed the waters here for decades.

Ken and Lori Ann cast their lines - rod and reel - into Conception Bay South waters.

What’s it’s all about: a cod fish has the line cut from its mouth after a prairie photographer caught it.

Seagulls careen and crash in the waters, eager to get any fish parts cast off from fishermen.

A Couple Photos

I always get a little nervous before even the simplest portrait shoots. Most times, it’s just my mind shifting gears and focusing on the work ahead - ejecting all the extraneous thoughts and daily blah blah blah and leaving (hopefully) only the person(s) and the photography.

But on a few rare occasions, the slight buzz comes from photographing another photographer. Is there a photographer that doesn’t find that at least a little intimidating? After all, they’re privy to what we think, how we work and they’re uniquely qualified to assess what we’ve done.

This was the case recently when I photographed Dwayne Larson and his fiancé April, in advance of their wedding (which they paid me the honour of photographing). Dwayne and I have worked in Winnipeg and known each other for years and although we’re different in style — he’s cool and I’m not, let’s not mince words — we both have devoted our lives to photography. What an honour to have him specifically choose me, and my style of working, to make images of this very particular moment in the life and he and his life partner.

Meeting up at the unsung gem Langside Grocery all my nerves were quickly put to rest. Here were two people who made others feel as comfortable as they clearly did in their own skin. Best of all for this photographer, here were two people who are so obviously at ease and great around each other. Great subjects, great location, great light — it was the kind of portrait session I always hope to have!

<<Technical Notes>> My remote trigger stopped working almost immediately upon arrival, so on the fly I was switched to ‘available light’ mode. Thankfully, the late afternoon sun was perfect in Langside Grocery (did I mention how fantastic that location is..?) and so the shoot went on. I used the magical (no other word for it) Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 on my 5D Mark IV, with a few EF 50mm f/1.2 images thrown in when the moment was right.

For more samples of how I photograph people, take a look at my People section on this website.

The front counter at the wonderful Langside Grocery, avec April and Dwayne.

National Strike

Last week, the Public Service Alliance of Canada - the union that represents federal employees across a wide variety of services - called a national strike to press negotiations that have stalled for 2 years with the federal government. With approximately 155,000 people on strike across the country this is one of the largest labour actions in Canadian history.

I’m one of those people, joining my co-workers and many other colleagues in the federal service in walking a picket line. It’s been quite an adjustment, as for several decades I’ve photographed all kinds of strikes and labour actions but now I’m experiencing it all first-hand.

I still have a camera, however — it’s a welcome bit of familiarity and mental focus during this uncertain time. No matter what I do or where, I will always be a photographer. It’s a way to live life and make sense of all that one experiences, and this week is no exception.

Placard signs carried by striking workers await their next carrier at a downtown Winnipeg picket line.

Strings attached to placard signs are seen with a badge at a downtown Winnipeg strike location.

He Ho! Let's go (Voyageur Bop)

I’m not a fan of winter - anything you can’t drive a motorcycle in just doesn’t seem like fun to me. But the one event that can sway me (other than aurora borealis) is western Canada’s biggest winter festival, the wonderful Festivalé du Voyageur.

I had the good luck to photograph this year’s festival for online news outlet ChrisD.ca — my first time at the event since 2020. Go figure, the past few years have been eventful…

My favourite way of working - just wandering, packing just a few lenses - seems to produce my favourite kinds of photographs: small decisive moments that showcase people and light. Did I mention the light? As a festival devoted to the fur trade period of c.1815, the historical re-enactments in Fort Gibraltar have period lighting, namely lantern or window. I absolutely love it.
And you will too. I highly recommend checking out the FDV in the week it has remaining! The website linked has a full schedule.

Louis Gagne twirls a carefully groomed moustache in his role as a French Canadian fur trader at Fort Gibraltar, circa 1815.

Historical re-enactors portraying soldiers hired by Lord Selkirk fire muskets during a demonstration at Whittier Park.

Dancers with the Spirit Sands Singers await the start of a powwow, helping expand the understanding of First Nations presence during the early 19th century fur trade in Manitoba.

Participants in the international snow sculpture contest help their creation take shape near the gates of Fort Gibraltar, in Winnipeg’s Whittier Park.

The currency of the early 1800’s in western Canada - furs, on display in one of the historical re-enactment displays at Festivalé du Voyageur.

Cold air and hot tea, at a display in Fort Gibraltar.

Volunteer blacksmiths work on actual iron items exactly like those needed in everyday life at Fort Gibraltar in 1815.

Winnipeg trio Sweet Alibi performs at the 2023 Festivalé du Voyageur, joining local artists providing sounds from EDM to fiddle and jig to rock.

John Kosse lights up the first night of the 2023 Festivalé du Voyageur. Kosse was one of a group of representatives from the St. Paul Minnesota winter festival attending Winnipeg’s event.

The JD Edwards Band opens the 2023 Festivalé du Voyageur.

Friends, fire, festivalé.

A perennial festival favourite is maple taffy - just add snow and roll.

Initially an accident with leaving my camera on a different setting, I really liked the impressionist effect this had, to give a mood or feeling to this timeless scene. The irony is if I deliberately set out to make a photo like this, I probably wouldn’t do as well as this one!

The Weekend (not affiliated with the music industry)

Assorted images from a quiet weekend that still, somehow, had a lot to photograph.

Onlookers view a light display painted across an Exchange District building Saturday night during the first instalment of the Lights On The Exchange public art event.

Light streams from the front of a heritage building east of Main Street, Saturday night during the Lights On The Exchange event.

A Chinese lion dance troupe weaves its way around a thick crowd of people Sunday morning during Chinese New Year celebrations at Kum Koon Gardens restaurant in Winnipeg.

A little girl greets a Chinese Lion Dance troupe with a huge grin during Year of the Rabbit celebrations Sunday morning.

A woman crosses a shaft of bright winter sunlight beneath a garland of hoarfrost on Provencher Boulevard in St. Boniface.

A woman cheers after tackling a whipped cream beverage at a birthday party in an Exchange District pub, Saturday night.

Clicks for Kitties

Recently, I found an ‘advent calendar’ of black-and-white Ilford film I picked up last year. This was a fun idea the company had last year that I wish had taken off more, but still shows its commitment to film photography and willingness to embrace new ideas.

I hadn’t opened mine yet, and while wondering how to make use of it I thought helping a local charity would be a great place to start. And from that: Clicks For Kitties.

How it works: just make a minimum-$50 donation to a local animal welfare charity (I offer some great suggestions below), and you’ll get to choose one of the numbers in the ‘advent calendar’ — whatever film is uncovered, I’ll use to make a portrait of you or someone/something you choose. Provide the receipt, and I’ll donate the development and scanning of the photoshoot and provide either a scanned copy of the image or a 5x7 print (Participants will also get the whole roll returned to them, also, if they choose). And that’s it — easy!

Logistically, this will be a local offer only for now. But for anyone outside my immediate area who wants to participate, I’ll offer a, 8x10/12 print of any image from my Places or Street Photography sections of this website in exchange for a minimum $100 donation to the charities listed below or an accredited animal welfare charity in your area.

Some great local organizations who can use your help:
Craig Street Cats

Winnipeg Humane Society

Free From Farm Sanctuary

Kismet Creek Farm

…or any accredited animal welfare shelter!

Please contact me through the Contact Me form on this website to take part, or for any questions you may have. Thanks!

A Walk With A Camera

One of the most enduring types of photography that’s been part of my life has been street photography. I prefer to think of it as ‘everyday life photography’, but ‘street’ is the most commonly known term for it.
I sometimes (only half-jokingly) call it ‘the least possible lucrative form of photography’ but maybe that’s part of the appeal - it doesn’t have to be bent or altered to do anything but what I feel about what I see, as I see it.

For me, it’s just pure reaction, in the moment, without any preconception. It draws on everything that’s happened in the past, but is also completely in the present moment. Going for a walk is always a great way to relax, but combine it with the keen observation that happens when you have a camera, and now you’re a flaneur. Finally, at the risk of reading too much into a simple walk with a camera, it’s a way for me to build empathy and understanding of others — I do think it’s only by being face-to-face and interacting with others (and no, via a phone does NOT count) that can hope to start appreciating them.

It’s with this background that I offer up a collection of street/everyday life photos from my own neighbourhood, a small selection from years of walking with a camera close to home. Wolseley is one of many interesting areas of this city, and of all the things many people will say about it, one undeniable fact is it’s one of the most walkable and varied neighbourhoods of them all. In other words, perfect for any street photographer.

I would be remiss if I didn’t say here that one of my main influences in everyday life photography, living one’s life with a camera and finding a sense of place through photography is a well-known figure in photography in this city and this country, John Paskievich. From almost inventing multimedia back in 1982 with his landmark short film “Ted Baryluk’s Grocery” to his excellent photobooks “The North End” and “The North End Revisited”, John has been an inspiration to a lot of photographers. I highly recommend either of his photobooks, by University of Manitoba Press.

For the camera nerds, all images were taken with a Leica M6, 35mm Leitz lens and mainly Kodak TMax 400 film.

Fire and Art Light the Night

This year’s Nuit Blanche event in Winnipeg was a feast for the eyes and mind. And if you’re a person who uses a camera to bring eye and mind together, well…it was a must-see.
Weather in this part of the world is always hit or miss when one season changes to another, but the first such event since the start of the pandemic was blessed with perfect weather and although it’s totally unscientific and just my observation, easily the biggest crowds in many years. Maybe ever.

Following are a few images from just a few spots on a fantastic Saturday night, including a funky disco event by the Peg City Rollers and the lead image of Mateo Lopez who along with the Free Spirit Fire group really lit up the night. Fantastic!

Mateo Lopez spins a web of fire around himself during a performance with Free Spirit Fire group, during the 2022 Nuit Blanche Winnipeg event.

Genie, with the Peg City Rollers rollerskating group, wraps herself in light while spinning to the music during the group’s Nuit Blanche 2022 event.

A dancer with Free Spirit Fire performs for the crowds during Nuit Blanche 2022 in Winnipeg’s Exchange District.

‘Fire Cycle’ by local artist Jonathan S. Green was the epicentre of Nuit Blanche 2022, providing a central event for the entire festival that people could rally to.

A member of the Peg City Roller wheels around a makeshift disco arena during the group’s exhibit for Nuit Blanche 2022.

A spire to faith and commitment

In Buddhist cultures, a ‘stupa’ is a focus of meditation, a structure that houses sacred objects. They’re a fairly common sight in Asia — in western Canada, not so much.
That’s why it was so gratifying to photograph the dedication of such a place this spring, as the local Sri Lankan Buddhist community came together to unveil the spire topping their very own stupa here in Winnipeg.

The ceremony marked many years of work by the ‘sangha’ -the community of monks, nuns and lay people - at the Mahamnevnawa Buddhist Meditation Centre who organized and built the structure themselves. Having also photographed the ceremony last fall when monks placed sacred objects inside the stupa, it was great to see how far the work has come to arrive at this point.

The weeks and months ahead will see finishing touches put on the site, but the structure itself now stands as a beacon of Buddhist faith, and a place for both the Sri Lankan community and the wider interested population to come to contemplate and be inspired.

A Night at the Opera

For the past several years, I’ve been proud to contribute photography for Manitoba Opera. Apart from just loving beauty and beautiful things, I’ve really come to appreciate how opera is basically storytelling — just like photography, just like books or Hollywood movies or even Instagram reels. Having relatively free reign gives me access to the people who work so hard to bring the show together, as well as the (pretty amazing) singers who make these stories come alive.
Like most arts groups, the Opera has had to grapple with the Covid-19 situation but happily the first major effort in a long time came together last night with the Gala Concert.
You could feel how happy people were to be able to have a night out again, and see these performers again on the Centennial Concert Hall stage. And the Symphony clearly didn’t get out of practice, either, with beautiful music carrying the audience throughout the whole event.

I’d urge anyone to check out the Opera and take in their next show. It’s a total treat to dress up, be seated in the hall, have the lights dim and the music flow out into that huge space all around you. You’d be surprised how easy it is to ‘get’ the stories behind each opera, once you learn about the production (which the Opera makes very easy both online and in the programs at each show).

Lizzy Hoyt sings with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Tyrone Paterson, behind her during the Manitoba Opera Gala Concert, Saturday evening April 2, 2022 at the Centennial Concert Hall.

Mezzo-soprano Catherine Daniel beams at the audience for Manitoba Opera’s Gala Concert.

The Centennial Concert hall, home of Manitoba Opera and its Gala Concert. The evening began with the Ukrainian and Canadian national anthems.

All five singers, backed by principal conductor Tyrone Paterson, are applauded by the audience near the end of Manitoba Opera’s Gala Concert.

Soprano Lara Ciekiewicz (left) and mezzo-soprano Catherine Daniel are applauded after a duet in the Manitoba Opera Gala Concert.

Until the autumn….

Prayers

For the past several years, I’ve been pursuing a personal project on faith and rituals - producing images of the various things different peoples do to show their faith.
One of the first places I went to was St. Vladimir’s and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in the city’s North End. I was warmly welcomed and the priest was encouraging and open to my project. It was an invaluable confidence builder and paved the way for any subsequent work I did.

It was this familiarity that I took into returning to the beautiful landmark cathedral this weekend, as prayers were given new urgency with the war continuing in the Ukrainian homeland. I wanted to continue my work documenting faith but also see the faith being offered to those suffering from the current conflict.

By coincidence, a rally for Ukraine at the provincial Legislature was also taking place later that day, a chance for prayers of a different sort at a different landmark building — a ritual of faith to strengthen a common bond.

For those wishing to help, St. Vladimir’s and Olga Cathedral is accepting donations for Ukrainian citizens suffering under war. And of course, the Canadian Red Cross is also a trustworthy, effective organization to help those in need.

Kosmii and Mykhaila Liuba offer silent prayers at St. Vladimir’s and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral during Sunday mass.

Angels symbolizing peace adorn the altar as a congregant lights candles at St. Vladimir’s and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral during Sunday mass.

A rally at the Manitoba Legislature Sunday afternoon drew members and supporters of the city’s Ukrainian community.