Despite the lockdown, A Place for the Arts is continuing its exhibitions.
This month, the group is hosting the work of Erika Squires, a nature photographer for their Annex Gallery Exhibition. Squires says she has been part of the co-op for a few years now but hasn’t done her own show yet. With the help of the volunteers at the gallery, they were able to put together an online showcase of her nature and animal photography.
Squires started her art career as a painter and picked up a camera 15 years ago to pursue as a serious medium. For the Annex Exhibition, she wanted to do a retrospective of nature, showing the changing of the seasons with her photograph. She feels that nature photography should be done ethically as more people have taken it up during the pandemic. She says when she does her photography, she is patient and never tries to feed, stress or disturb the animals. To get her photographs, she has invested in a telephoto lens to get long shots. If an animal is unhappy with her presence, she will back away or leave. She also takes the time to study the animal beforehand to learn their behaviours.
A Place for the Arts says it will continue to offer the exhibition on its website until the end of May.