Leaving Town

As one who has stayed, the hardest part of living here are those that leave. A constant ebb and flow of people and lives. Being part of the community for six months or a year, or ten. Holding on to the ones who stay. Hardened off. Some sort of Shangri-la. A transient town, a tourist town. Where teenagers and twenty-somethings come to party and get their rocks off and then leave. Banff as a foggy memory : a reminder of youth, and living in a room with five people, and basement bars and the raw feeling of beer-dulled minus twenty. Stumbling home. A place for potential and proving oneself in the wilderness. Extreme fear and wind-whipped glee on the crest of a mountain. The challenge of building a life where the cost of living and real estate is line with Toronto or Vancouver and the jobs are mainly in the service industry. May and September. Stacks of mattresses and lamp shades and a shopping cart by the garbage bin. Broken T.V.s. A turning point and a realization that this isn't forever. The character of this place is the constant change of friends and acquaintances. This series is a document of the people I have known who once lived in this town. Each person was photographed the day (or in the days before) they left this place. We discussed the location they wanted to be photographed, and each image was made with a 4”x5” view camera.