Mad About the Bay: Photographs of Georgian Bay by William Harris

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

William Harris’s art starts as photography, then moves on to the
computer for manipulation and re-emphasis. The result is a highly
personal interpretation of landscape classics—the exposed rocks and
windswept pines of Ontario’s Georgian Bay.

Georgian Bay, large enough and sufficiently distinctive to frequently
receive the label of the sixth Great Lake, is actually part of Lake
Huron. Its eastern shore is famous for a landscape of approximately
30,000 small, rocky islands, each picture-perfect as a meeting place of
rocks, sky, wind, and water. With 30 colour plates—most full-page
format—Harris works to amplify the impression created by these natural
elements, helping us see them more intensely or with a new richness. The
wave pattern he sees in the water might, through computerized
manipulation, move up to fill the sky or coat the boulders. The
distinctive cushion shapes of the rocks might be echoed in cloud shapes
where no clouds existed before. The land might be wrapped in a
sky–water sandwich, each domain magnifying the features of the other.

The text accompanying these artistic impressions is a chatty,
personalized essay that roams from the weather to family cottage
vacation traditions, memories of summers at the Bay, boating, and social
gatherings. It’s a quick read, touching lightly on everyday topics
that will ring true with anyone who has experienced a summer at a
lakeside cottage. Together, text and art make a coffee-table package
that should find a welcome in cottages across Canada.