The Gatineau

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, Japan Foundation Fellow 1991-92, and the author of
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered:
Leo Kennedy’s Story.

In a photoessay on the magnificent parkland just west of the capital,
across the river beyond Hull, Ottawa photographer Malak has chosen to
concentrate on people, on the human communities and activities within
this area of great natural beauty, and not on landscape alone. For more
than a generation, the names of Karsh and Malak—for portraiture and
landscape, respectively—have symbolized master photography.

Malak’s shots range from the Gatineau River in spring flood and Lake
Fortune in golden autumn light to Mackenzie King’s classical ruins,
the Museum of Civilization against a backdrop of the Parliament
Buildings with a night sky lit by fireworks, and the annual Gatineau Hot
Air Balloon Festival. Most carry suggestions of the intimacy of human
experience and nature within the Park setting, of the age-old Canadian
partnership with the rock of the Laurentian Shield.

The bilingual text by Ron Corbett, a columnist for the Ottawa Sun, is
set in twin columns. Photo captions are also bilingual. Matching
Malak’s focus on people, Corbett writes of log drives, legendary
figures, artists, the eccentric William Lyon Mackenzie King, and
community activities. A restaurant owner notes that the area attracts a
certain kind of person: one who likes freedom and land. The Gatineau
supports this claim.