Back in March, when the pandemic started, I was the artist-in-residence at the Gushul Studio in Blairmore, Alberta. I made a book there called Safe Inside, that responded to the rapidly changing world I found myself in while away from home, that looked through the windows, looked out from a position of safety, out into a world that was increasingly dangerous and fearful. The images focused on the ice and snow in the windows themselves, on the barrier that both separated and protected me from the outside world, at the patterns and structures of ice and condensation, at the lens through which we see the world. I thought the project would be timely, would be something I could look back on by now with perspective and distance, from a world that was “normal” once again. Now, nine months later, we’re entering into another phase of lockdown, another phase of being inside, trying to stay safe, trying to survive amidst uncertainty and fear. And as winter comes on once again, the world outside my windows looks more and more like that I photographed last March. I am glad to say that I am, for the time being, still safe and well. I hope yet wonder if I will remain so. I look forward to the day when that is not contingent upon being inside, isolated, and looking out on a world from a distance that once was safe and now is not.
