Western Canada: Thomas Gardiner | LENSCRATCH

Thomas Gardiner is my favourite Canadian photographer you’ve never heard of. A busy man, he doesn’t spend much time pushing his wares, although he should, because they’re really good. Like Tupperware from a trade convention, everyone could use it. A son of the Prairies, photographer Thomas Gardiner was born and raised in Western Canada. After a few years away from home, he returned to reflect upon and react to the landscape and its inhabitants through photography. Placing an appraisal on Gardiner’s work beyond one tempered in pure aestheticism, i’d argued his images empower a narrative of expanse and pastoralism that is particular to the Canadian West. And similar to much of the work conducted on Canadian identity and environs, Gardiner’s work raises more questions about the relationship between land and inhabitant than it settles and I like that.