Review
Review of Front Lines: Portraits of Caregivers in Northern British Columbia
By his own estimation, Kelowna-based photographer Tim Swanky travelled at least 20,000 km. by road to get to his subjects for the book Front Lines – Portraits of Caregivers in Northern British Columbia.
And he did a good portion of that on a motorcycle, toting his camera gear along with him as he crisscrossed the northern half of our spacious province.
And sometimes, that was the easy part.
For a portrait of Dease Lake physician Dr. David Beaulieu, Swanky and he set out at dawn and hiked high onto a ridge overlooking a spectacular vista of trees and a river valley, all for basically one shot.
“That took six hours,” said Swanky of the session. “He picked me up at four in the morning to get the morning light. The shot in the book was like the first one we took, but we were gone all day.”
He got it though, and the image captures the man doing what he often did outside of work, dressed in camouflage and looking for big game with his spotting scope and rifle slung over his shoulder.
Throughout its 100 beautifully printed pages, Swanky tried to capture the essence of the people who work, mostly by choice, delivering healthcare to the far-flung residents of the Northern Health region.