at least it is an island

itinerary


canon or nikon? buddy asked as he approaches.
mamiya.

i wasn’t sure if i wanted to piss down rain so that i could get a good days driving in and make it to p.e.i in time to find a hotel before midnight - or not as i would miss another part of the acadian coast.

the weather couldn’t decide either as the downpour stopped long enough for me to walk around newcastle which it seems this part of marimichi was called.

there was a nice square but i avoided it deciding to head down a pleasant street for a bit then turn toward the river and head back then decide whether i should hit the square. it was an odd move for someone who was thinking of trying to make it to charlottetown.

buddy was nelson cloud mi’k maq photographer - meaning a photographer from the mi’k maq nation. we chatted on the street a bit then as he was heading to his favourite café, i joined him and like a great aunt i went to the machine and brought out not the small haiku that i show most people but just because.

sat and chatted with he and his friend drew who told me of the area - it seems that dick cheney was up last week to hunt. they gave me places to see, but wondered as nelson was a wild life photographer and as everyone does, they placed the fear of moose in me. they also said that moose were not native to newfoundland that they were imported for hunting reasons - thanks for that brilliant idea.

asked if i sold work.
i laughed.
the book he was holding cost $200 to make
-that’s not bad as he heads over to a shelf
who would bay a $400 book.

he was heading to a book by the sackville snapper and was surprised that i knew him it was his book on salmon runs in the province which opened more sore spots and this fear that i am falling through every crack possible. he is included in the show at the discovery centre that opened this week-end. he has published another book like the salmon runs that i have and this trip was supposedly an attempt to somehow crawl back into visibiliity - just because was to be left at the discovery centre to remind them that other photographers have been to gros morne, i was also heading over to rocky harbour to java jakes to see it they would be interested in allowing me to display some work since they had work of the great northern by that new brunswicker. so seeing nelson reach for his book as an example had me wanting something stronger than coffee.

the dissappointment this time wasn’t not making it to the rock but i had a definite purpose. from the last two outings there - heading down the burin then up the bonavista and then the french coast, i knew what i was trying to come to terms with.

the outings before this while there was a purpose it was more or less let’s see what happens even the residency was sort of spring training it was seeing how i would react to what was in front of me.

the more the little exercise of photographing people who talked to me became more about the conversation than some cross between a conceptual piece and a collection. the more i knew about the not so much the history but people’s relationship to the province.

i also realised that i was at the point where i could go two ways with this. i could be eternally working on this project in the manner of cbc presenters who seem to be eternally writing books, or coaches who are constantly adding to their notes so that when they edit they will come to it from a position of strength.

i finally realised that finishing what i wanted to do - notice how i don’t say precisely what it is - didn’t mean i was finished exploring not even exploring this but it was making a commitment to a thesis.

this trip was for that i knew what i was looking for - not specifically there were no specific photographs i was looking for it was situations - and this would have added to and completed the thesis.

even this jaunt around the coast was to be part of it not photographically but in comparison. there is a reason why i am heading to the tips of places - gaspé, in acadie, p.e.i., cape breton, it is to compare to get some perspective.

the original original itinerary was to more closely compare québec outports with those of newfoundland. beyond baie comeau beyond the end of the road on the north shore there are anglophone settlements.

i am getting ahead of myself but wondering why charlottetown was nice but wasn’t really exciting me i looked up the population 35 000 a third the size of st john’s. things fell into place.

but i hid my bitterness well to nelson and drew by simply mentioning that my camera was bigger.

again this was perfect, we chatted until the conversation waned i excused myself and got in the machine to head off. it was well past noon but now there really wasn’t a reason to make time and i knew that whatever timetable i set up no matter how loose, wouldn’t be met.

the drive was by far the most diverse to this point. rain then over cast skies, there were more oddities by the road than before, not quirky signs but simply strange things - the plot of and with a table a couple of chairs and an outhouse - photographed the usual suspects but also brought in pretty landscapes.

i still found that i would stop for one thing and find it something better because i did stop.
a barachois at eel river briidge where because a pick-up pulled out when i arrived on the bridge above him, i found a campsite that brought humanity to the pretty landscape - but i am sure that not even that would justify the image at the dukedom.

in baie sainte anne i stopped to photograph a closed gasbar mainly for the formal until i saw the dories behind it and then noticed netting set out to dry where the pumps used to be.

chatted with buddy who was protesting the government as it was taking his land for the national park at kouchibouguac.

made snaps of teens bored with life in richibucto village ironically hangin out in front of an old age centre.

photographed buildings tied to the fishery as it while making it down he coast. found that the rain didn’t stop me from.

was gobsmacked when i saw the confederation bridge, this line almost hugging the northumberland straight with a minor bump in the middle that stretched out sight. structure as landscape sculpture, earlier through the mauze i could see another wind farm on the tip of p.e.i. like the ones in gaspé they are beautiful. those wine sipping twees of martha’s vineyard are crazy worrying about their view, they look like giant sentinals slowly rotating. someone should tell them that it is a christo and marie claude project.

shocked at the toll for the bridge -$42.50. i stopped at the information centre to see if they take bank cards.

-hey how are you buddy says coming up to me.
don’t recognise him.
-we were in the same motel in marimichi i saw you check in.
still didn’t ring a bell i was still glad to not only find a place to sleep but to be through moose alley.
they were the lordes up from the gta going east this time, it seems that they had been to an artist colony in saskatchewan.
now i vaguely remembered someone asking about which way his room and i remembered his wife.

asked me what i was doing - brought the book and while i was photographing them he photographed me. this seems to be the trend as nelson did the same.

over the bridge into the strangest welcome centre i’ve been in a substantial shopping complex with quite a few buildings as if one could be lured into paying $42.50 if there were shopping on the other end - found out from mario that one only pays when leaving and they do take bank cards.

p.e.i. was yet another environment - heavy farming from what i saw potatoes everywhere. was worried though when i pulled into charlottetown - the outskirts looked like mount pearl with the walmarts, zellers, indigos, atlantic superstore, sobeys sears, winners. it seemed like the motels were clustered in the area.

headed into town hoping to find a place where i could walk instead of drive. after the price shock i was in the room in an annex that looks like a bed and breakfast - without the annoying people.

i felt like a pizza