It was one of those decisive moments that famous photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson talked about.
The shadow curved around the golden grass plain, with the bright red sand dunes cutting into it. Overhead hung the blue sky, its colour deepening as the sun sank over Sesriem, Namibia.
“It was the most beautiful place I had been to in Africa,” Cory Sine says. “When I took that photo, it was a casual second thought.”
Sine first started snapping shots with a old 35-millimetre camera when he was seven years old. The activity became an art form after a friend introduced him to black-and-white photography.
“It kind of changed my relationship with photography,” he said.
The professional photographer has called Squamish home for six years. An avid hiker and rock climber, he focuses his lens on landscapes. Mountains, with their peaceful impressions and dangerous reality, lure him.
“I think it is a very specific nature of beauty,” Sine said. “The starkness, the shadows creating a soft feel over dangerous landscapes.”
Sine regularly drives the Sea to Sky Corridor hunting for interesting vantage points and fresh views on landscapes. His work is on display at an exhibit he calls “Shades of Summer.” Sine’s pictures will hang on the walls of the Squamish Adventure Centre for the month of July.
“The show is local stuff,” he said. “It’s work I haven’t displayed before.”
The photo exhibit is part of Visuals art group’s latest show, which also features work by textile artist Freda Hoff. Hoff’s pieces depart from her normal dark and intensely coloured weavings to play with soft pastels. She has a variety of shawls and scarves on display.
Hoff creates most of her work on a floor loom in a studio that overlooks her garden. The flowers and bushes serve as inspiration for the colour that enters her work — peach-tinted quince blossoms to mauves of the lilac.
“Greens are always a good filler just as they are in the garden,” Hoff said.
Besides the show at the Squamish Adventure Centre, Visuals is busy getting ready for the kickoff of the community’s annual Squamish Artcrawl. This year’s event takes place July 25 to 27.
For more information on the show or Artcrawl visit www.squamishart.com. For more information on Sine’s work visit Panoptikon Photography on Facebook.
