ShadowLight: A Photographer's Life

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.

The author calls this book “a self-portrait, complete with
wrinkles.” Freeman Patterson, photographer and writer, is also a
teacher and a philosopher, a thoughtful man addicted to travels of both
the external and internal kinds. He thinks of his skill in the art of
photography as the “passport” that permits entry to the kind of life
he seeks. His extensive travels have taken him across Canada and the
United States, and to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and many
other countries. Deserts fascinate Patterson, and he compares the play
of light on sand dunes with the human body. Some incredible shots of the
Great Sand Sea in South Africa at sunrise are as stark as abstract
paintings.

The current collection combines 100 of Patterson’s favorite
photographs, selected from thousands taken over many years, with a
substantial text that traces his changing styles and interests. Each
photo has its own caption; these are often lyrical and reflective as
well as descriptive.

Both text and images are also autobiographical, directly or indirectly.
Patterson writes: “A camera always looks both ways. Like all serious
photographers, I have to accept and deal with this fact—the reality
that my images are as much a documentation and interpretation of myself
as of the subject matter I choose.”

ShadowLight’s stunning photographs bear witness to profound interest
in a visual world, which also witnesses to things unseen.