Impressions of Temiskaming Book

This beautiful hardcover book is 8.75 x 11.5 inches, in landscape orientation. Visitors to Temiskaming will find the book an elegant keepsake of the Temiskaming area. Locals, too, will find it an enjoyable, attractive and informative coffee-table book. The images in this book will strike a familiar, resonant chord for those who have lived even a small portion of their lives amidst the exhilarating and picturesque Temiskaming landscape. Below are some sample page spreads from the book.

The book is divided into three sections, each exploring a part of Temiskaming: "The Deep Water" features Lake Temiskaming itself, "The Little Clay Belt" features the agricultural rift valley, and "The Forested Uplands" explores the bedrock-controlled topography of Temiskaming's hinterland. Each section is introduced by a full page of text. Most of the photos also have informative captions.

The book is 136 pages, and features a collection of over 150 full colour, vividly reproduced photographs showcasing Temiskaming, Ontario. The book is "Smyth-sewn", the highest quality and most durable binding method available, which will allow the book to lay flat when open on a table. Images have been captured from widely throughout Temiskaming District, though each individual chapter is from a more restricted locational palate.

My goal in producing this book has been to help reinforce a "sense of place", the elusive gestalt that represents the truth of what Temiskaming is in the hearts and minds of the people that call this their home. In doing so, I have focused largely on the natural history of the area because, as someone trained in biology, that tells me more about the true essence of a place than its cultural history, rich and important though that may be.

Temiskaming shares a great deal of its character with the rest of northern Canada. And yet, perhaps even surprisingly, in the underlying details there is much to distinguish her. The Little Clay Belt, and the story of its origins, is one such feature that sets Temiskaming apart. This book attempts to explore that which makes Temiskaming unique.

With the exception of the photographs of wildlife subjects, most of the images in this book are of an identifiable and recognizable location in Temiskaming. The wildlife photographs, too, were all taken in Temiskaming, and although the exact location may not be apparent in many of the photographs themselves, they are chosen and included here to elucidate another aspect of the character of the Temiskaming landscape.

In focusing on a subject through the camera lens, my goal is to better appreciate, even to glorify, the beauty that is already there. The photograph itself, therefore, should not be contemplated as the object of beauty. Though the photographer may have helped bring it into focus, the beauty was already real.

Enjoy the images in this book, but then go out and find your own Temiskaming, and enjoy the great beauty that is always there, all around us, every day.

The book is available for $32.95 at the following retail locations (in no particular order):

- Kenabeek General Store, Hwy. 65 West

- Chat Noir Books, New Liskeard

- Chartrand's Independent Grocer, New Liskeard

- GarLins Gift Gallery Plus, Englehart

- Foto Shop, 32 Lakeshore Rd N, New Liskeard

- Temiskaming Shores Area Chamber of Commerce, New Liskeard

- Matachewan Town Office, Matachewan

- Haileybury Heritage Museum, Haileybury

- Cobalt Mining Museum, Cobalt

- Laura's Art Shoppe, Cobalt

- Elk Lake Eco Resource Centre, Elk Lake

- Virtual Earth Technologies, 22 Paget St., New Liskeard

- Museum of Northern History, Kirkland Lake

- Englehart and Area Historical Museum, Englehart