Yellow Houseboat

Photography on cotton rag paper.

30.50x24x1"

Limited edition 1 of 10.

We had had a difficult evening. I did what I sometimes do — I picked up my camera and went out. It was early November 2015, our first year in Yellowknife, and the lake had just frozen. I figured the ice was safe enough; there was a car parked on it. We had been hoping to see the Aurora, but freeze-up keeps the sky cloudy — the condensation from the lake turning to ice creates its own weather, and that weather makes hoar frost. I had only ever seen hoar frost like this before at the top of ski mountains in Vermont.

What I found on the ice that night was a yellow houseboat — cheerful and bright against an otherwise grim sky — with a red canoe resting on its side. It was exactly what I needed. I didn't stay long. Foxes, or perhaps coyotes, began crossing my path in the dark and I decided it was time to go home.

This image, and Silent Night, were both made that evening. Part of my Life in the Knife series, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.