Prince Edward Island: True Colours

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

This photoessay by a husband-and-wife team is a tribute to Island values
and traditions as well as a visual feast. Anne Mackay, an Islander born
and bred, grew up hearing stories of “olden days” and riding her
stubborn Shetland pony over fields and through woods. Both the brief
text and the photos reveal an abiding love for a place whose peace and
beauty offer a spiritual experience. Anne finds the hour before sunrise
to be the most beautiful time of day.

Wayne Barrett, a native of Cape Breton, was inspired as a child by a
photoessay of Prince Edward Island by the late Mark Gallant. Trained as
a photographer in the Canadian armed forces, he married an Islander,
along with her people and her place. He feels that the Island has
“moulded” his career and his entire life in profound ways.

Many of the full-page photos combine place and light to create images
that are moving, even awesome. The red of the sandstone occurs in fields
and country roads as well as in spectacular cliffs along the coastline.
Lupins grow wild by the roads, their sharp pinks and purples blazing
against the orange-red earth. As Anne writes, “the sky flooded with
gold, and the red fields became surreal.” In True Colours, one of the
great beauty spots of the world is caught by the seeing eye and the
loving heart.