Canada is a country with a diverse range of ethnicities and origins. People have come, and continue to come, from all over the world in hopes of a better future for themselves and their families, as was the case with my ancestors. Horne Lake is an exploration and discovery of the landscapes and spaces that my ancestors settled on during their immigration to Canada. My Father’s ancestors immigrated from Scotland in the mid-late 1800s settling near Lanark, Ontario. My great-great-great grandparents, the Horne family, started their Canadian life on a small eighty-one-acre lake today, known after my them, as Horne Lake. Horne lake resides approximately 339km away from Toronto, Ontario and 100km away from Ottawa, Ontario, the closest major city. Today there are roughly five cottage/homes on the lake, including one modern day home that occupies the plot where my ancestors resided. Upon arrival, my ancestors were the first overseas settlers to make home on the lake. My great-great-great grandfather used the resources of the land to create a small cottage-like home for his family. Even though the home has been renovated to present day needs, pieces of the structure still remain the same.

Using shadows, and my body to incorporate myself into the landscapes I grounded myself as the photographer, allowing the artwork to become about my relation to the environment, and not only the landscape itself. The series captured and encompassed a past that I attempted to understand and connect too while exploring ideas of heritage, immigration, and colonization. Horne Lake was a response and a reflection, a search for information about a place that seemed so distant but had a strong ancestral connection. It was an exploration of something that was once only a story told by relatives, a place of new beginnings and a new life.