The Ark

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Canada | Friday, August 6, 2010 | 5 photos

I recently drove the Trans-Labrador Highway, completed this year, to help film a documentary. Having grown up in Vermont, I always admired Canada -- for its kind people and progressive culture. But Labrador told a bleaker story: This area is ravaged by strip-mining and heavy industry. Tensions are high between itinerant workers and the largely unemployed Innu people. The highway has connected disparate towns, but locals are conflicted about its impact. These images proved deeply personal: I have lived for 13 years in Pittsburgh, and I have seen the city recover from its toxic industrial past. In contrast, the vast woodlands of Labrador and Quebec endure pesticides, deforestation, and -- to my shock -- severe desertification. In company towns like Churchill Falls, workers live in a kind of neo-feudal dystopia, where every house and shop is owned by a single corporation. People are still kind, but the loneliness is palpable. This is Canada's "other half."