The remote, rugged nature of the
Milk River landscape is an international treasure. From its entry
point into Alberta as the North Milk River near Whiskey Gap to its
exit east of the ecological reserve at Kennedy Coulee, the
shallow, silty visitor travels through sparsely populated, little
disturbed and a less visited part of Alberta. Different from the
treed north, the central plains and the mountainous country to the
west, the arid badlands have been a formidable deterrent to
development, thus preserving the beauty that only nature gives.
The landscape has changed little since the first writing on the
sandstone coulee walls. It is a country of mystical vision quests
dominated by views of Chief Mountain, the Milk River Ridge, and
the Sweet Grass Hills, whose three unglaciated summits stood as
Nunataks above the Laurentide ice.
A Land Beyond the
River is my photographic vision quest through this country. It
is a compilation of visual impressions collected from the
landscapes of nature and man, of rainbows and oxbows, and
illusions in reality. I have spent five years exploring this land,
searching for one image that captures its essence, its mystique,
but I always return to find something new, something that adds to
is story, not sum it up. A Land Beyond the River invites
the viewer to embark on their own vision quest of this treasured
land.
