Where the Light Shines First is a series of photographs beginning on Bell Island, where my father lived as a young boy. I myself felt the limitations of growing up in Newfoundland, an isolated island as far east as you can go in North America. I saw very little opportunity and was desperate to leave as a young adult. Eventually I did leave, to go study photography in a densely populated urban environment. I was confronted with an unfamiliar form of isolation, feeling largely disconnected and I had felt that I had lost a sense of place. Whenever I returned to Newfoundland I felt as though I was a visitor while still considering it my home. I realized how important the rural environment was to me and it became an urgent subject in my work.
I became interested in the relationship between memory and place, moving throughout the landscape, wondering whether my father had spent time where I now was. I questioned how I could learn more about him by examining a sense of place on Bell Island through photography. I experienced a similar feeling while observing parts of Newfoundland that were impacted by abandoned industries and were suffering from economic decline post cod moratorium. This project explores both personal and communal loss, probing sites that allude to both familial and regional histories in Newfoundland.
