Why do people take photographs? That was the underlying question Victoria based, Calgary born artist Trudi Lynn Smith wanted to 
answer with her new exhibition ‘Finding Aid,’ which opens at the (SAAG) Southern Alberta Art Gallery, June 25 at 5 p.m.
Over the past six years, she has been gathering, buying and borrowing archival photos of Waterton National Park dating all the way back to 1874, and been attempting to recapture these moments lost in the mists of time, by rediscovering familiar scenes of inspiration.
“I learned that you can never go back to a point in time because so many things change,” said Smith who is studying for her doctorate in fine art and photography.
The project was inspired several years ago when she was photographing the Wales hotel, when two men asked her why the prominent water tower isn’t in too many photographs, that in turn got her thinking, and trying to capture these man made impacts on nature.
“Waterton Park is very small and it’s on the border of Canada and the U.S. as well as Alberta and B.C., so there is a very rich photographic record,” she said adding while she has attempted similar projects in Banff and Jasper, Waterton’s size also made it a little easier to find the original scenes — usually.
“One time I spent a whole day climbing a mountain, only to find it was the wrong peak,” she said adding it was difficult if not nearly impossible to recapture the exact scene in the old photos.
All of the photos are original, except for the oldest photo of the collection— a survey photo from 1874 , which had to be printed out on a computer. All of her photos are analog or darkroom created.
The exhibition has been shown in Nanaimo as well as Victoria, though she is glad to be able to bring it back to Lethbridge. She received a lot of help from people along the way including Waterton Park ranger Rob Watt who has been there for 30 years and knew most of the sites as well as numerous local people offering their own insights and ideas as to where to go.
As a part of this project, Smith will be leading an excursion to Waterton Park on Sunday, so people can try to create their own photographs of familiar sites.
“It’s interesting, some people take photos because they need them for surveying, others want to make postcards, and tourists take their own even though they can get them as post cards,” she observed.
Cal Lane’s new Exhibition ‘Sweet Crude’ also opens at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery.
The opening reception for both exhibitions is at 5 p.m., June 25. The exhibition runs until Sept. 5.
