Valley 2000 - A photographic Record . . . Life in the Okanagan

The year 2000 was a year like no other. Then again, so was 1999, 1998 etc..

So too will be 2001. What made 2000 so outstanding was, that despite the hype, events unfolded as they should. Like any other year, there was laughter, hardship, snowstorms, car trouble, ripe tomatoes, politics, apprehension, expectation, reason and surprise. There were empty chasms and vessels bursting at the seams. There was song and there was silence. The year 2000 was filled with variety - springtime cherries soaring red with temptation, fall time apples warmly rooted, awaiting winter.

On my travels throughout the Okanagan, I ventured down roads straight and narrow with clear vision on either side, behind and in front. At other times, roads took unexpected twists, banking into new territory, reminding me that a new way - the stuff of chance - is usually worthwhile.

Valley 2000, as I envisioned it, had one goal: to stop in its tracks the unrepeatable moment in time. To seek such a thing could have been chaotic, for every moment in time contains within it, millions upon millions of images. Within those, there are millions upon millions of options.

Oftentimes, I felt like a filter, using the narrow rectangular framework of the camera to take in and leave out experiences.

Valley 2000 gave purpose to my observations of people, animals and places. A project goal is essential though it goes on indefinitely if one honors chance as a reoccurring fact. Binding these images together under a common date somehow unifies time into a tightly bundled representation of possibility.

These photographs are only a few of many that are either on film or still out there in the infinite. I hope I have done justice to those you see stopped in their tracks. I'd like to think that my job was to show that fleeting glimpses of history never repeat.

j.k.d.2000