New Photography Exhibit Opens At Touchstones in Nelson

Touchstones, the Nelson, British Columbia museum, has opened two new photography exhibitions this month including Creston photographer Tekoa Predika’s “Enduring Spirit” show, which explores living on the fringes through stunning tintype colloidal photographs.

Famed American landscape photographer Ansel Adams once said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” On the surface it seems he is referencing a physical place but perhaps it also refers to a place in time, a context that is equally important.

The two new gallery exhibitions at the Touchstones Nelson Museum this month explore the ideas of place and time through the lens of many different masters and mediums. Creston photographer Tekoa Predika presents “Enduring Spirit,” a collection of tintype colloidal prints that capture a moment in time of several families who have created their own place in the world. The portraits present contemporary families, yet the tintype method is dripping with nostalgia and romance. “Tintypes are more than just a photograph, they are a dynamic recording of the moment it was made, with the fingerprints of the maker and environmental impact on the chemical alchemy,” says Predika in an artist statement.

“These photos capture the outsider and creative quality of people who build shelter as both a means to an end but also a reflection of a counterculture sensibility; ardent and inventive architecture,” says Museum Curator Arin Fay. “The images show a symbiosis between people and place, past and present—a melding that the wet plate collodion photo process dramatically accentuates with its timeless aesthetic.”

Also on display this month is “Shutter,” a group photography show, which is the third in an ongoing series of medium-centric exhibitions that explore specific media through as diverse a lens as possible. Featuring the work of Dayna Danger, Adad Hannah, Sandra Semchuk, Thaddeus Holownia, Althea Thauberger, Suzy Lake, and Nelson’s own Fred Rosenberg, “Shutter” explores place through the contrast between urban and rural locations, work and play, environmental reverence and environmental disaster, and more.

An important element of these group shows is that they are rooted in the inclusion of exceptional regional artists, in concert with contemporaries on a national scale; they are framed by myriad views and vantage points, both familiar and unexpected.

“We are thrilled that our community, artists from across Canada, and the Canada Council for the Arts, by way of continued grant support, are excited by the curatorial and programmatic approach, and ongoing critical success of the medium focused exhibitions,” says Nelson Museum Executive Director Astrid Heyerdahl. “’Shutter’ is going to be an exceptional exhibition which we hope many individuals from our community, and beyond, will enjoy.”