The Gift of Salmon

Photographing the death of Pacific Salmon has become a passion of mine. These salmon who died on their spawning grounds are the winners, they battled the odds and fulfilled their life's purpose. They've done their part to ensure the continuation of salmon in British Columbia's waters by spawning the next generation. The annual pulse of salmon returning to our rivers is a significant source of nutrients, particularly marine derived nitrogen, that will feed the salmon's young when they emerge from the sanctuary of the egg. But their influence doesn't just stop at the rivers edge, their bodies will feed the forest, from the largest bear to the smallest rhizome of the mycorrhizal fungi. The beautiful gift that is a wild salmon doesn't end when it pumps its last breath of oxygen over its gills, its influence cascades through the forest and into the next generation. I aspire to show the beauty that is the salmon spawn, including the crucial role that death plays in this ecosystem