Cape Breton Portfolio

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.

Contemporary popular culture, modern highrises, quaint churches,
historic sites, steel mills, breathtaking scenery, and the restless
ocean are all subjects for Gordon’s camera. He portrays them all with
dignity and love. Obviously this is his land, his home, and whether his
lens is focused on a comedian, a modern expressway, fall colors, or
abandoned farm machinery, there’s empathy and caring in every shot.

Portfolio offers a photographic tour of Cape Breton, the island that
sits across the Strait of Canso from the Nova Scotia mainland. It is
Gordon’s third book of photos of the island.

The ocean is part of Cape Breton—surrounding it, invading it, and
nearly dissecting it—and Gordon presents the ocean in all its moods;
it is a common thread running throughout the book. Yet this collection
of 120 full-color photos is far from being merely a collection of pretty
ocean- and landscapes. Recognizing that Cape Breton is nothing without
Cape Bretoners, Gordon has included representative portraits of the
island’s people. The inclusion of numerous aerial photos strengthens
the collection, as they help to put the detail shots in context.

The work would have been improved if the captions had been expanded and
if a map and an index of plates had been included. Even with these
omissions, however, it is an attractive and informative book. It is an
ideal album for casual browsing; every page presents a new facet of life
or landscape on this beautiful but harsh Atlantic island.