Forest Bathing

Inkjet print on paper.

30.25x25.50x1"

Limited edition 1 of 15.

I have been walking into forests since I was a small girl in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. There was a forest behind our home, and I found early that something in me settled when I entered it. I didn't have a word for it then. The Japanese call it Shinrin-yoku — forest bathing. The meditative act of immersing yourself among the trees and simply being present.

We had just moved to Cantley, Quebec just two weeks before. I was still learning the landscape, when a freak snowstorm arrived on April 27th, 2022. I went out with my camera immediately.

The forest hadn't finished being autumn — leaves still clinging to the branches — and now fresh snow had arrived. A stream still ran beneath it all, refusing to acknowledge that winter had returned. Two seasons, two states of being, occupying the same moment.

I made many photographs that day. This is the one that feels most like what it felt like to be there.
Cantley, Quebec.