The theme for the Calgary Banff Canmore Photography Festival, Exposure 2010 is perception. Perception walks a tightrope between science and mysticism. Mathematics and psychology speculate that perception is a singular occurrence involving stimulus, consciousness and memory and yet experiments have shown that perception is variable and open to influence. Mysticism asserts a unity of being, within which perception consists of illusions, veiling the true nature of reality.

Our experience is coloured by layers of history, personal experiences, beliefs, social values, political climate and expectations which we bring to the door of perception.

Now! on the Way to Becoming uses snapshots, staged scenes and constructed compositions to explore my perception of metamorphosis and an intricate web of relationships among apparently unrelated events.

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Alfred Stieglitz coined the phrase/idea of "equivalence" in the early 1900's. Minor White described a photographer who took such an approach as one who "recognized an object or series of forms that, when photographed, would yield an image with specific suggestive powers that can direct the viewer into a specific and known feeling, state or place with himself." This best describes what Jim McElroy does with his camera.

Rock Formations - Galianno Island

Real events occasionally assume mythic proportions. The plight and rescue of Margaret Stone, trapped on Mt. Eon for eight days following the climbing death of her husband in 1921, is such a story. Her ordeal is one of the most dramatic events in Canadian Rockies history. Mt. Eon is the second highest peak, after Mt. Assiniboine, in the southern Canadian Rockies and the fourth highest in Canada. It’s location is remote and, at that time, inaccessible.

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This exhibition focuses on portraits of several individuals who have lived the lure of the wild including Jimmy Simpson, Ike Mills, Aileen Harmon, Bert Mickle and Sam Evans.

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The Continental Divide of the Americas begins at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the western most point on the mainland of the Americas. The Divide crosses northern Alaska into the Yukon, then zigzags south into British Columbia. The Divide follows the crest of the Rocky Mountains south through British Columbia, eventually forming the boundary between southern British Columbia and southern Alberta.

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In the very heart of the Canadian Rockies is the geographically small but geologically and scenically spectacular Yoho National Park. It was named after the Cree exclamation of wonder and contains such celebrated sites as Lake O'Hara, Emerald Lake, Takakkaw Falls and the Spiral Tunnels of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

In Yoho! we focus on the Yoho and Waterfall valleys, a small area which epitomizes in miniature the wonders of the park and has been the focus of much activity and interest since it's discovery in 1897.

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