Author’s mastery frees her to bear witness to the spirit of joy, discovery and delight that informs her engagement
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Wild Vancouver Island
Catherine Babault | Why Not Publishing
$40 | 103pp.
This time the title says it all — Wild Vancouver Island. Anyone who has spent time clambering over boulders and logs along the Island’s coast or stood entranced in the moist, moss-green cathedral light of its interior will know that Babault has chosen her subject matter wisely. Those of us who spend too much time on the grid and in the city will be grateful to be reminded of the heart healing beauty to be found in nature, and of the particularly sublime experiences to be had by anyone willing, as this gifted photographer is, to devote patience and mindfulness to time in the wild.
Babault’s work is visually stunning, with each image perfectly framed. She has clearly mastered the technical aspects of her art, and that mastery frees her to bear witness to the spirit of joy, discovery and delight that informs her engagement with the creatures and elements she portrays.
The book opens with a shot of waves foaming into whitecaps against an island shoreline. This shot is reminiscent of Emily Carr’s energetic brush strokes or of Joseph Turner’s exuberant paintings of storms at sea. It is a perfect entry point to the book and reminds the viewer that all life does come from the sea.
The shots of a kelp bed that renders it as flowing abstract form continues and extends the way this book links organic forms to earlier visual art. The images that follow move from the sweeping abstract to the lovingly rendered particular, with elegant portraits of a Great Blue Heron, pipits, black turnstones, killdeer and sandpipers. A final shot in this shoreline section shows salmon gathering close to shore, awaiting their great return to home streams. But the shot is not strictly representational. Babault has caught the play of golden sunlight on the water’s surface to create a lovely effect like beaten gold foil.
The author acknowledges that she has a special affection for bears, and that warm regard Is reflected in a following section of wonderful bear pictures. But the bears are not alone in the magic lantern of Babault’s visionary photography. Also luminously portrayed — barred owls, Roosevelt elk, robins, and a red-legged frog.
Highly recommended.