This post will be of particular interest to Yellowknifers and those who have involvement in mining.  This is Giant Mine in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. It’s one of Canada’s most historic mines, for both good and bad reasons.  Yellowknife was built from the industry surrounding Giant Mine and Con  Mine, a second, cross-town mine.  Both gold mines, they both operated for decades before finally shuttering their doors and giving way to the newfound wave of diamond mines.

Ever since I moved to Yellowknife I’ve been interested in Giant Mine.  It’s hard not to be.  It’s the home of one of the worst mass murders in Canadian history, when nine men were killed by a bomb during a labour dispute in 1992.  More recently, it’s often in the media due to being a contaminated site:  its home to over 200,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide, and the site of a massive remediation project by the Federal Government.  This is not a place that escapes unnoticed, and every time I drive past its famous headframe, I’ve often wondered,  just what is it like under there?  This week I had the opportunity to satisfy that curiosity, as I spent a morning exploring and photographing its secrets.

Today was as interesting a day as I’ve had as a photographer, and probably one of the most unique in the diversity of assignments:  underground mining followed by a creative fashion shoot.

The morning started with a trip down the road to the historic Giant Mine just outside the City of  Yellowknife.  This long running gold mine, which closed about a decade ago, has its history interwoven tightly with the history of our city, both for good (RE: jobs/prosperity) and bad (Google:  “Giant Mine Murders” and “Arsenic”).  As a photographer who has developed a bit of a specialty in underground mining, having now photographed mines in three countries on two continents, I’ve always wanted to have the opportunity to go underground and photograph the mine closest to home.  This week, that opportunity presented itself.

So what better to book immediately following the morning’s shooting?  Why, a conceptual creative portraiture shoot, of course.  Those who follow my work have known about my long standing artistic partnership with Tiffany Ayalik, a talented actress and model whose talent knows no boundaries.  Recently, we started a new series called “Territory” (alternatively called “Elemental”), the jist of which is to create a series of portraits – photographed across the various seasons – and have the North, where we live, personified as woman.  Check out part one of the series here.

So this afternoon we ventured out, after Tiffany had make-up applied by the very talented Nicole Garbutt, to a snowy outside location to photograph what we conceptualized as “Lady Snow”.  This would involve Tiffany representing snow.  And me trying not to f**k it up.  With the help of a special guest assistant, Jeremy Bujold, and a model who has more balls than most guys I know (although I would say this was the most cold I have ever made Tiffany, which I almost take as a badge of honour), we had a successful hour in a bit of a snow squall.

Great day, and here’s a small series of contrasting images from lands of rock and ice from this diverse day.