On March 19, 2022, I headed into downtown Calgary to document one of the many demonstrations that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a professional photographer, I had spent much of the previous two years watching assignments disappear and work slow dramatically. Like many people, my routines had been disrupted, and I found myself spending far less time with a camera in my hands than I was accustomed to. The protest offered an opportunity to dust off my camera, get back out into the city, and document the world around me once again.
Debates surrounding vaccines, public health measures, and government mandates had become deeply divisive, and the so called “Freedom Protest” reflected just how polarized public opinion had become. Rather than participating, my goal was simply to observe and create a photographic record of the moment.
For this series, I photographed the protest using a Widelux panoramic camera on black and white 35mm film. The Widelux’s swing-lens design allowed me to capture a much broader view of the scene than a conventional camera, placing individuals within the larger crowd and providing context that would have been difficult to achieve in a standard frame. The panoramic format felt particularly well suited to documenting public demonstrations, where the scale of the gathering is often as important as any individual subject.
Black and white film helped simplify the images, drawing attention to expressions, signs, gestures, and interactions rather than color. Looking back, these photographs are less about politics and more about documenting a moment in Calgary’s history when conversations around personal freedom, public health, and government policy dominated daily life. Regardless of perspective, the images serve as a visual record of a period that shaped communities across Canada and around the world, while also marking my own return to documenting life beyond my front door.
See more of my widelux work here.