About Colin

I am a fine art photographer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. My artistic practice is largely representational, but I also try to reveal abstract and surreal impressions of my mind's eye.
 
I was born in Halifax in 1948, grew up in Montreal, and returned to Nova Scotia to attend Acadia and Dalhousie Universities. I taught high school history in the Halifax area for 28 years and then spent five years in leadership roles with the Nova Scotia Teachers Union.
 
Fine art photography has become my vocation since retirement. Although not formally trained in photography and the visual arts, I have taken photography workshops and Continuing Ed programs in digital graphics at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
 
I am a member of ViewPoint Gallery, the Photographic Guild of Nova Scotia, Visual Arts Nova Scotia, and the Photographic Society of America.
 
I have won numerous annual awards at the Photographic Guild of Nova Scotia, including best photojournalism image, best nature image, best pictorial image, best landscape/seascape, best wildflower image, best botanical image, best “contemporary”(abstract) image, top silent essay, and top sight & sound essay.

My prints have been exhibited at ViewPoint Gallery (including three solo exhibits), the Sherman Hines Museum of Photography (solo exhibit), FRED. Gallery, the Seniors’ Gallery at the World Trade and Convention Centre, VANS' Art in a Box, and Art Sales & Rental at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

Several organizations have invited me to present illustrated talks of my work, including the Imagemakers Photography Club in Truro, the Bridgewater Photo Club, and the Photographic Guild of NS. I have also conducted seminars and workshops for the Guild.
 
I have self-published six books of my photography: Light Painting, Water Songs, Photographing Northern Italy, Fine Art Photography 2005-2009, Kokopelli, and Metamorphosis, all of which can be viewed on my Books Page.

My personal credo for a life well-lived: To love, appreciate, enjoy, create, reflect and wonder. Balance the physical and mental. Create an aura of happiness and beauty around you by giving attention to your environment and the people in your life. Seek out beauty in your world, especially in the oft-overlooked common-place things. Revel in, rather than fear, the mystery of existence and consciousness. Remember, not all questions need or can have answers. Create meaning in your life. Seek quality, not perfection. Learn from the past and plan for the future, but live in the present. Do what you can within your human limits to make your world more just and humane.

Through my photographic art, I attempt to reflect my way of seeing and living in this world. Like music, taste and touch, seeing is a sensual pleasure: Colour, texture, shape and pattern (in even the simplest things) are to be enjoyed, appreciated and celebrated. Creating and seeing can provide a healing counterpoint to the disconnecting complexity of modern life. This is what I seek to apply to my work.