One of my current projects is to create abstract photographs of my hometown of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.

With abstract photographs, we try to reflect the mood or emotions or qualities of a place. Each Tuesday, I’ll present a new image from the project.
 

Vines

Vines in Winter


 
We moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake in the dead of winter, about two and a half years ago. The first theme that came up for me while photographing this new place was one of vines on walls. They’re everywhere.

We had just moved back to the area where both my husband and I were born, a place we hadn’t live in for over forty years! My mother’s maiden name was Vine.

This type of image is endlessly fascinating to me, for it shows how everything is interconnected. These are vines on a wall, with a pleasing red and silver theme going on, but they could also be a river system, arteries in the body, or veins on a leaf.

This is a place where there is a sense of history in the old buildings and where plant life is abundant. There is a deep connection to the past and the struggles that happened here – the war of 1812, a stop on the Underground Railroad, the first capital of Canada.

Vines (and all plants) grow easily here.
 

Niagara-on-the-Lake is a tourist town. It’s surrounded by water – Lake Ontario on one side and the Niagara River on the other. The world famous Niagara Falls are only twenty miles down the road.

It has a world class theatre called the Shaw Festival, which draws thousands from April through November.

This town was the first capital of Canada and one of the major battlegrounds for the War of 1812. You can see re-enactments at Fort George. The U.S. counterpart, Fort Niagara, can be seen across the river.

This is one of the best agricultural areas in all of Canada, known for its fruit – grapes especially, and is now home to more than 100 wineries.


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