RESPECT – A chronology of our challenges
The photos that make up RESPECT were taken in northern Canada between
October 2006 and July 2007. The first exhibition opens at the Montreal
Biosphere on August 16, 2007.
Summer 2006 – SAJO asks Reporters Communication
to design an assignment on Canada's boreal forest that will culminate
in a series of outdoor exhibits. An aviator and a narrator will cross
the country. This team will be joined by a variety of photographers as
they fly from east to west, covering the four seasons.
2006 Thanksgiving Weekend – Larivière
of Reporters Communication meets Douglas, the pilot, in Montreal. Allen
McInnis, a photographer for the Montreal Gazette, offers to help secure
the project by making a demo. Larivère, Douglas and McInnis fly
to Parc des Grands-Jardins and Parc des Hautes-Gorges in Charlevoix, and
return with photographs that kick off the project.
• With those first images in hand Louise Larivière starts
to look for partners. She will act as project coordinator as well as chief
of mission and narrator. She and Douglas will soon start their journey
across the country in a small aircraft, a Cessna 182.
October 26, 2006 – Photographer Kazuyoshi
Ehara is flown to Wawa, Ontario, north of Lake Superior, to complete the
fall shoot.
February 23, 2007 – Photographer Jim
Ross and the pilot, Douglas, battle extremely cold weather to shoot the
boreal forest over Slate Island, a few kilometers from Terrace Bay, Ontario.
February 25, 2007 – After being grounded
for a few days because of high winds, Douglas and Larivière are
able to fly to Poplar River on the east side of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba
where they are met by photographer John Woods who has flown in from Winnipeg.
On February 28, 2007, the project comes to
a stop. The plane will rest in a hanger in Winnipeg during the remaining
winter months.
June 1, 2007 – Woods, Douglas and Larivière
survey the western side of Lake Winnipeg for photo locations. Woods will
finally get the shots he wants on Sunday, June 3rd, a few hours before
his assignment ends.
• Douglas and Larivière fly from Manitoba to Saskatchewan
over rugged, forested terrain. Since there is no possibility of an emergency
landing in this environment, the team is without any kind of a safety
net. After a short stop in Grand Rapids to interview Chief Ovide Mecredi,
Larivière begins to grasp the profound knowledge the aboriginal
have of the boreal forest.
June 6, 2007 – Todd Korol meets them
in La Ronge, Saskatchewan and photographs the La Ronge boreal region.
Douglas and Larivière head down to Edmonton to pick up the next
photographer. The plane is grounded with avionic problems and must be
repaired.
June 8, 2007 – Douglas and photographer
Dan Rieldlhuber head for High Level, Alberta. Larivière will join
them and travels there by Greyhound bus. Rieldlhuber shoots numerous locations
including the foothills of the Rockies, but his main focus is the ancestral
hunting lands of the Dene Tha’ First Nation around High River. Weather
remains unpredictable, disrupting progress.
June 12, 2007 – Douglas and Larivière
leave Rieldlhuber in High Level, making their way to B.C. to meet Jeff
Ross who photographs northern BC, focusing on the Fort Nelson First Nation
traditional territory.
June 15, 2007 – Douglas returns Ross
to Vancouver to pick up photographer, Andy Clark.
June 18, 2007 – Clark and Douglas leave
from Nanimo on Vancouver Island. The plane lands with a flat tire in Williams
Lake.
June 19, 2007 – Douglas fights some
extremely bad weather on the way to the Yukon and is forced to use flight
instruments to guide the plane for the last part of the trip. Overnight
in Watson Lake.
June 20, 2007 – They finally reach
Whitehorse in the Yukon where Larivière is waiting for them. The
team’s assignment in the Yukon’s boreal regions extends from
Haines Junction in the west to Dawson City in the north.
June 25, 2007 – Clark flies back to
Vancouver, and Douglas and Larivière head north. They are forced
to spend the nigh in Dawson City due to bad weather. The original plan
was to fly north to the Beaufort Sea and then back along the Mackenzie
River to Yellow Knife in the Northwest Territories.
June 26, 2007 – Another failed attempt
to reach the Beaufort Sea: Douglas and Larivière are forced to
turn back due to severe thunder storms.
June 27, 2007 – They make yet one more
attempt to reach Yellow Knife, this time via Whitehorse, Watson Lake and
Fort Simpson. After flying over the spectacular landscape of the Nahani
Valley, they land in Fort Simpson for refueling. The plane breaks down
on the runway, thereby signaling the end of trip.
July, 2007 – The thousands of photographs
that were taken are carefully edited and selected by photo director Alain-Pierre
Hovasse, and sent to Epson Canada in Toronto for printing. Forty are being
printed for the Biosphere show, and 80 for the Winnipeg exhibition which
is scheduled to open at The Forks August on 21, 2007.
August, 2007 – Contact Image in Montréal
laminates and mounts 120 photos in less than a week. All images are protected
with Drytac products (weather shield).
• SAJO has designed and constructed 60 stands, each weighing 1,000
pounds, to display the images. Forty of them are being shipped to Winnipeg,
the remaining 20, installed at the Biosphere.
•August 13 - 15, 2007– Teams
will work at the Biosphere on rotating schedules to ensure the show is
installed in time for the August 16 opening.
• RESPECT opens at the Biosphere on August 16, 2007 at 5pm and runs
until February 28, 2008.RESPECT © Reporters Communication