Christopher Clarke, Belleville, ON
Member Since July 2009
Artist Statement I began working with photography as a vehicle for teaching children and youth about the natural world, and as a medium for youth to tell their own stories. While working with children and youth is still a part of my life, the art of story-telling, through both photography and the written word, have become my primary passions. To date, I have spent time photographing remote northern communities and developing my own skills as a photographer, focusing on portraitures, landscapes, and environmental portraits. My primary objective is to bring the stories and images of the people and places of Canada's north to as wide an audience as possible, in a creative, accurate, and artistic fashion, in order to show the complexities and beauty of our land and its inhabitants.
Technically, I like to keep things simple. Though I started photography working with 35 mm film, I have since moved on to a digital format, and currently shoot with a Nikon digital SLR camera. My approach is that of a photo-journalistic, documenting the environment as it appears and events as they unfold. Beyond the basics of photo-editing, I currently have very little use for the manipulation of photographs, believing that my purpose is to find beauty in truth. Therefore, it is important to me that the shots I take remain accurate and portray the environment and its people as they are, and not how I want them to be perceived.
A member of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, I currently reside with my family in Belleville, Ontario, while on hiatus from the journalism program at Loyalist College. Through my studies at Loyalist, and as a freelance writer and photographer, I have begun my career as a journalist and photographer covering sporting and entertainment events, general news assignments, and First Nations issues. I have been published in the Belleville Intelligencer, the Loyalist Pioneer, Windspeaker Magazine, The Umbrella, and a number of community and online newspapers. I also continue to teach photography and media studies to both youth and adults, and have began contracting my services as a photographer to government agencies, most recently to the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada.
Click to save as artist's preferred kit 
