20 frames · Canada · 2014–2018

The Long Autumn

An autumn lasts a few weeks. This one lasted four years — and ran backward.

Three trips across Canada, in 2014, 2017 and 2018, fell in the same weeks of the year, and each began a little earlier than the one before: early October in the east in 2014, late September in the Rockies in 2017, mid-September on the Pacific coast in 2018. The years moved forward; the autumn retreated.

The frames in this series run backward through the calendar. It begins in the golden haze over Niagara, where autumn is already burning out, passes through the first snow in the mountains, and ends in coastal fog, where autumn is still hard to tell from rain. From color to gray, from a single bird to a flock — time runs in reverse until autumn disappears altogether.

View the series

Spray above Niagara Falls in deep golden light, with a single bird flying through the haze — 01 / 20

Niagara Falls almost hidden by its own spray, with birds flying over the river — 02 / 20

A river, blurred by a long exposure, flowing past rocks strewn with fallen leaves, with an autumn forest on the bank, Canada — 03 / 20

A misty lake with a small wooded island, red and yellow autumn trees on the slope, Canada — 04 / 20

Red maple leaves and pine needles in a dark forest pool in autumn, Canada — 05 / 20

A view from a granite outcrop over a winding lake among wooded hills, with a small tree in the foreground, Canada — 06 / 20

A slope of bright yellow autumn shrubs among dark fallen trunks, Canada — 07 / 20

A yellow rocky shoal seen through clear turquoise water, with rocks and forest reflected on the surface, Canada — 08 / 20

Thick mist over a lake, with an autumn forest and snowy peaks in morning light above, Canada — 09 / 20

Spirit Island with spruce trees on turquoise Maligne Lake in the Canadian Rockies, with clouds reflected in the water — 10 / 20

Glaciated mountains in fresh snow, a snow-dusted conifer slope and fog below, Canada — 11 / 20

Snowy mountains in cloud and a band of fog over the forest, mirrored in a still lake, Canada — 12 / 20

Snowy peaks in cloud above a spruce forest and a turquoise lake, Canadian Rockies — 13 / 20

A slope densely covered with thin trunks of dead trees on snow, Canada — 14 / 20

The tangled roots of a giant tree in a rainforest, with red-brown bark and moss, Canada — 15 / 20

Forested mountains in low cloud and mist, with driftwood in the water by the shore, Canada — 16 / 20

A small Douglas fir on an old log in the middle of Fairy Lake, Vancouver Island, in mist — 17 / 20

Dark rocks running into a grey sea under heavy clouds, with a pale band of light on the horizon, Canada — 18 / 20

A large flock of birds over water against blue mountain ridges, Canada — 19 / 20

A steep wooded slope half hidden by thick fog, Canada — 20 / 20

About the series

Three autumn trips across Canada, folded into a single autumn. Eastern Canada: Ontario and Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto and Niagara Falls (2014). The Rocky Mountains: Banff and Jasper National Parks and Maligne Lake (2017). The Pacific coast of British Columbia, with the rainforests and misty lakes of Vancouver Island (2018).

The 20 frames run in reverse calendar order, from the golden haze of October in the east to mid-September in the west. The years move forward while the autumn grows younger with every frame. The sequence closes on fog drifting over a mountain slope.

“Spirit Island”, taken on Maligne Lake, won 3rd place in the Landscape category of the Golden Turtle competition in 2023.

Works from the series available as prints

A dusty road and water in a ditch in golden light against the sun, with a car under spreading acacias in the distance, Kenya

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