Birdtail Sioux First Nation - 2010
Kristy Yuzicappi of Standing Buffalo First Nation in Saskatchewan does her hair in the passenger prior to the Grand Entry at the Birdtail Sioux First Nation Powwow.
Nothing to Break the Light of the Sun
2010 - Ongoing
“I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures.” - Geronimo
The prairies. Farmers. Cowboys. Sunsets. Watching your dog run away for three days. Nothing to see here but wheat fields. 1600 km’s of unbroken flat wedged between the Canadian shield and the rocky mountains. Even our elevations are made up of depressions. River valley’s carved into the plain that we eagerly elevate to the status of ‘hills.’ We even ski down them.
The prairies don’t get a lot of attention unless there is a natural disaster or a federal election, in which case politicians and big city journalists flood into the fields to find the true heart of Canada.
Manitoba’s population sits at roughly 1.37 million people as of 2019 and close to two-thirds of the population live in the capital city; Winnipeg. The second largest city in the province, Brandon, only has about 50,000 inhabitants and is still considered rural, especially by the those inside the perimeter of the capital city.
Summer in western Manitoba is brief and beautiful but just long enough to wash away the collective memory of the brutal winter behind us and the impending one to come. There is an urgency to summer on the prairies. You are obligated to make the most of it.
Austin, Manitoba - 2022
Manitoba Threshermen's Reunion & Stampede.
Steer-rider Monty Forbes after his ride.
Polonia, Manitoba - 2022
Laundry hanging to dry at the Wiebe's.
Dauphin's Countryfest, Manitoba - 2019
Young men and women drink and socialize along the creek that runs past the site of Dauphin’s Countryfest, the yearly country music festival that attracts thousands to a patch of land just outside Riding Mountain National Park.
Dauphin's Countryfest, Manitoba - 2019
Young men and women fall from a moving pickup truck as it crosses a shallow creek that runs adjacent to the campground at the Dauphin's Countryfest 2019 music festival in Manitoba, Canada. No one was injured in the fall. Excessive alcohol consumption is widespread at the yearly festival and concert-goers often party in the creek as a means of staying cool during the hot late June days.
Southwest of Polonia, Manitoba.
Canola and Fireweed.
Northeast of Brandon, Manitoba - 2021
The final car on a train passes by the prairie landscape.
Brandon, Manitoba - 2022
Brandon, Manitoba - 2010
Billy Cook and Ashley Soulier share an embrace while saying goodbye.
Brandon, Manitoba - 2020
Coffee row outside the McDonald's on the Trans Canada Highway.
Carlyle, Saskatchewan - 2021
Banners of all the 2021 high school graduates adorn lamp-posts along Main Street in the town of Carlyle.
Alexander, Manitoba - 2021
Watrous, Saskatchewan - 2017
West of Brandon, Manitoba - 2014
Combines work a field near Sioux Valley Dakota Nation at sunset during fall harvest.
250 Bridge, north of Alexander, Manitoba - 2022
250 Bridge, north of Alexander, Manitoba - 2015
A combine crosses the narrow Highway 250 bridge over the Assiniboine river during harvest.
Deerboine Colony, Manitoba - 2018
Jack Hofer grabs a cloth to clean his knife after slaughtering a hog.
Deerboine Colony, Manitoba - 2018
Blood stains the snow during butchering of hogs on the colony.
Rapid City, Manitoba - 2021
potato crop pivot Irrigation rainbow
Brandon, Manitoba - 2022
Flower petals placed in the Assiniboine River in remembrance of missing and murdered indigenous women.
Brandon, Manitoba - 2018
Saint and sinner tattoos are visible on Nolan Clark’s wrists as he lays his hands in the grass during the Revival in Princess Park tent ministry series.
Brandon - Manitoba - 2010
Revellers during a foam party at Houston's Country Roadhouse.
Brandon, Manitoba - 2018
Noel Harding (black shirt, red shorts), owner of the Brandon Boxing Club, leads a training session in the street next to the rubble of his former club four days after it was destroyed in one of the biggest fires in Brandon’s history.
Brandon, Manitoba - 2019
Summer evening softball in view of the Brandon Federated Co-op feed production plant under a blue sky.
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation - 2020
Sioux Valley High School 2020 graduation parade.
South of Virden, Manitoba - 2013
A vehicle is washed off of Highway 83 as floodwaters pour over the highway.
West of Brandon, Manitoba - 2014
Sisters Sadies and Emma Poczik play in their grandparents above-ground pool unfazed by the floodwaters being held back by a dike and super sandbags just beyond them on the south side of Grand Valley Road west of Brandon, hours ahead of the expected first crest of the one-in-300 year flood.
South of Dauphin, Manitoba - 2023
A forgotten stalk of corn blows in the wind after harvest.
Brandon, Manitoba - 2011
Riding the Ring of Fire at the Manitoba Summer Fair. As a small city, Brandon's summer fair technically happens in late spring, early June, so the midway can move on to bigger cities for the summer.
Heartland Rodeo, Spruce Woods, Manitoba - 2010
Bull Mania, Gladstone, Manitoba - 2019
A cowboy pulls the tail of bull while trying to coerce it into cooperating.
Minnedosa Double Points Rodeo, Manitoba - 2019
Kelly-Jo Marshall rounds a barrel atop her horse under the rising moon.
Virden Rodeo - 2022
Heartland Rodeo, Spruce Woods, Manitoba - 2009
Eight-year-old Montana Jackson of Brandon watches the 7th Annual Sprucewoods/Shilo Heartland Association Rodeo from the bleachers.
Alexander, Manitoba - 2020
Fighting a stubble fire that jumped roads in high winds.
Brandon, Manitoba - 2015
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation - 2019
South of Polonia, Manitoba - 2022
Frost and snow cling to horse hairs caught in the barbs of a barbed wire fence.
South of Virden, Manitoba - 2014
Jasmeen Stahl with Silverline Oil Field Services casts a shadow through the steam as she uses high pressure steam to thaw a pumpjack south of Cromer, Manitoba while the temperature hovers around minus 30.
Minnedosa, Manitoba - 2020
The lounge at the Asham U18 Women's Provincial Championship.
Ski Valley - Minnedosa, Manitoba - 2016
Telsa and Trina Waldner of Odanah Hutterite Colony at Ski Valley.
Brandon Hills, Manitoba - 2019
Ice-covered cattails after freezing rain.
Lake Wahtopanah, Rivers, Manitoba - 2020
Minnedosa Lake, Manitoba - 2012
Peering out of an ice-fishing shack.
Clear Lake, Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba - 2015
Jesse Matas skates on the smooth-as-glass ice covering Clear Lake.
Sandy Lake, Manitoba - 2022
Holy Ghost Cemetery.
Fairholme Colony, Manitoba
Sofia Maendel and Tirah Maendel gallop along the shore of the Assiniboine River atop Modesto and Rio, a quarter horse and quarter horse/thoroughbred mix respectively.
West of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - 2017
North of Pine Creek Colony, Manitoba - 2017
Edrans, Manitoba - 2022
West of Souris, Manitoba - 2019
Burning off marsh created by years of heavy rains on farm land.
West of Brandon, Manitoba - 2023
Dauphin's Countryfest, Manitoba - 2018
Fans cheer in the pouring rain as country superstars Florida Georgia Line headline the main stage at Dauphin's Countryfest.
West of Souris, Manitoba - 2019
Flowers grow on an abandoned concrete arch bridge over Plum Creek west of Souris as swallows fly over the creek. The bridge was built in 1921 as part of Provincial Trunk Highway #2. The highway was later relocated to the south.
Elgin, Manitoba - 2019
Treesbank Colony, Manitoba - 2019
Kids play on an inflatable slide rented from a nearby town during field day, marking the end of the school year.
Harte, Manitoba - 2022
Last light at the Harte elevator.