A PHOTOGRAPHER’S LOVE LETTER TO CANADA
After 300,000 pictures, he’s still enamoured of his adopted homeland
The main problem with taking close-up pictures of fuzzy little polar bear cubs is the ferociously protective mother that’s almost inevitably nearby.
What made it even more perilous for photographer George Fischer was that each time the mother of these particular cubs would charge, his guide would gun the snowmobile — almost sending the shooter lurching onto the Hudson Bay ice and into the chasing bear’s path.
“It was a crazy story. She charged me about three or four times ... and those guys, they’re fast,” Fischer, 63, recalls of the shoot three years ago.
“Every time we were within 50 feet of the cubs, she would charge us. And within seconds (she was) like 10 feet away from the back of the sled.
“And I never knew when the driver would gun his snowmobile and I almost fell out every single time, which would have been nasty.”
Still, Fischer persevered, and the picture of the cubs is included in his new book, Canada: 150 Panoramas.
The Star recently spoke with Fischer, who has published some 15 books of Canadian landscape photos over the last three decades. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
You include cityscapes of Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax in the book. And a large majority of Canadians now live in those cities and other urban centres. Do you think most people in this country still identify with the rural and wilderness areas you concentrate the bulk of your work on?
Absolutely, I definitely think that most Canadians think of themselves as part of all of Canada. Not so much the cities, but traditional things like lakes and moose, the outdoors.
And everyone wants to escape the cities these days.
Everyone wants to go up to their cottage in Quebec or Ontario or out to the seaside if they live in B.C. or (the Maritimes). They want to enjoy what we have here.
You’ve photographed around the world. Are there wilderness places or natural features of this country where you could take a picture and say “This is Canada, I could be nowhere else on Earth”?
Definitely when you think about the Prairie Provinces when you’re looking at the grain elevators, you can’t be anywhere else. The Rocky Mountains and Lake Louise are pretty unique. And I’ve been up to Baffin Island; I did a book called Canada’s Exotic
North. I spent a lot of time up there. And the towns and the landscape around there are pretty unique. I don’t think you’d be able to see those villages and landscapes anywhere else in the world.
Speaking of polar bears, they have become the poster children for the global warming crisis. You’ve been taking pictures of Canada’s wilderness for more than 30 years. Have you seen changes in the landscapes anywhere that you might attribute to climate change?
I have to definitely say I noticed it in Nunavut. Things that should have been frozen when I was up there (several years ago) were open water and we would have temperatures of plus 9C or 10C (in December and January).
And the picture (in the book) where I was supposed to go by snowmobile to the Akshayuk Pass (on Baffin Island) I had to fly in. There was not enough snow. It ended up costing like $10,000 for the plane. That wasn’t in my budget. My plan was to go in with a guide on snowmobile for 350 bucks.
Obviously this book of 150 photographs from each province and territory is tied to the 150th anniversary of Confederation. What did you hope to achieve with it?
I came here to Canada in 1956 (at age 3). My parents escaped during the Hungarian revolution. They wanted to go to a country where my brothers and sisters and I could all grow up and pursue our dreams and our passions and not be worried about having people threaten us (or) kill us.
And when we came to Canada there where so many opportunities for me and I did so many things. And I love Canada and I’m proud of my country and I’m proud of what it’s done for me and my family and for lots of other people who are coming here as immigrants.
I just wanted to show everybody that we’ve got a great country.
Can you even estimate the number of photos you’ve taken of this country? And do you have a favourite or handful of favourites that you can describe?
Whoosh . . .I must have close to 200,000 to 300,000 photographs across Canada. And a lot of the pictures in this book were chosen from the years that I’ve been doing the photography.
There are a few pictures that stand out in my mind that were really incredible, a couple of (which) appear in the book.
One was the aurora borealis shot in Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories (in 2011). I never saw an aurora borealis in my life and I was told when I was up there — it was late September — that if I went out at midnight I’d see an amazing sight. Well, nothing happened at midnight and I was about ready to go back to the hotel when it began as a little sliver of green in the night sky and it just got bigger and bigger and it was framed by two float planes. That was amazing.
Another one was in the Queen Charlotte Islands. I was doing a lot of work for (a fishing club) out there. I’d gone three or four or five times and I went back last year and they would always want me to take pictures of (their clients) catching big salmon. These were like deluxe tours that cost $5,000. But I always found that part boring. I would sit on the boat and fall asleep. And then (the last time I was out) someone yelled “George, wake up!” And I woke up and that instant a big killer whale jumped up in front of us. I only had time to take two shots and it was gone.