How do we experience and make meaning of a particular place?

Photographic artist Neal Panton uses his camera lens to create connection to a place. Photography nurtures Neal’s feeling of belonging. According to Neal, it is this deeper emotional connection that makes places worth caring about.

Neal’s latest solo art exhibition entitled, “Sense of Place” represents how people experience and make meaning of a particular area and encourage a feeling of belonging for the people who live there.

For this exhibition, his focus was on the Kootenays. Over the years of living in the Kootenays, Neal has spent a lot of time exploring its diverse landscapes. The mountains in the Kootenays provide Neal endless opportunities to make great photographs. Neal says, “the challenge to me as an artist is to find a unique way of seeing things that people see all the time, to bring a unique point of view to the world around us.”

When asked what Neal’s challenges were when creating this exhibition, he explains that in the last 10 years or so he has been working on panoramic stitches, the process of taking several photos that can be merged into one photo to make a larger photographic canvas. Neal explains, “in my practice, photography is a challenge of exclusion to make your work more impactful. Making panoramic images is another process altogether as the final product is the practice of inclusion. I find it more of a challenge to compose in this way and to maintain the impact of the final panoramic photograph.”

“Sense of Place” is a collection of largely panoramic photographs utilizing metal printing. Printing the photographs on metal creates stunning images due to the smooth surface of the material as well as it helps keep down weight and cost of the artworks. Creating solo exhibitions to mount in physical spaces is a costly undertaking, but as Neal puts it “Like a song, all art forms require time from the viewer to absorb, contemplate and learn from the artwork. To make an emotional connection that is both visceral and intellectual requires time spent with the artwork.”

There are two things Neal enjoyed the most during the creation of this exhibition. Firstly, he feels privileged to be heading out into this part of the world with an idea in mind. “It’s a joy to be able to venture out and search out a point of view that illustrates the shared experience of the Kootenays.”

Secondly, selecting photographs for an exhibition is challenging, exhilarating, joyous, and meaningful to Neal. “Reliving these moments helps me find the connection that exists between all the photographs. I’m a firm believer that we don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are. Creating an exhibition reinforces this belief.”

Growing up in a blue collar, immigrant family in Hamilton, Ontario – an industrial city one hour from Toronto – exposed Neal to a great variety of people, cultures and points of view. Within the family, photographs were always being shared. This was how Neal got to know his family overseas and how his family shared their experience in Canada. It was through these early experiences that Neal developed an understanding of visual language.

Neal is a self-taught photographer. After taking one night school course in the basics of photography, he got his first camera at the age of 22. Most of his photography and art education has come from books and observation. Neal has worked as a university professor of Photography and Visual Language, and he spent a year as a photojournalist for Reuters news agency.

Photography has been Neal’s primary creative outlet since 1984 because it is closely associated with reality. Playing with this expectation helps him find his particular photographic point of view and personal style. As he often presents his work in black and white, he has had to train his eyes to see in that way, always keeping the final product in mind.

Neal’s work is a combination of intuition and skill, and he creates photos that are reflective rather than passive. In this reflection viewers can discover their own unique meaning and deeper connection to the image. He uses digital cameras and also scanners to create his photography.

Using photoshop, Neal creates photographs that resemble the darkroom photography process that highlights his particular style; “I have been told often that my photographs don’t look like photographs”. Photography is Neal’s way to communicate and form alliances in the world. People often respond to his images with their own narrative; Neal’s photo, their story.

The exhibition will be available at Key City Theatre in Cranbrook from January 30 until March 31.

The opening reception will be held on February 9 from 7 – 9 p.m. with musical guest Tyrel Hawke.

Due to maintenance issues at Centre 64 in Kimberley, Neal’s exhibition at the Centre 64 Gallery has been rescheduled for the fall of this year.

Photos submitted

Written by Irma de Visser and Neal Panton

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