Ellie Desgranges Photography - Prince Albert National Park

"The Mandate"

"On behalf of the people of Canada, we protect and present nationally significant examples of Canada's natural and cultural heritage, and foster public understanding, appreciation and enjoyment in ways that ensure the ecological and commemorative integrity of these places for present and future generations." - Parks Canada (2021)

Becoming an environmental professional has transformed my vision of forests. Science, by bringing its particular light, adds in synergy a beauty of its own to the aesthetics, thus highlighting the fascinating, but easily overlooked details of Gaia's physics. Paradoxically, understanding the power and speed of climate change, the mood swings of Mother Earth, leads me to anxiously wonder about what will remain and what will be lost as her character matures. These feelings have sparked an almost frantic desire to document the "now." Through photography (using point-of-view restriction and juxtaposition) and detailed captions reminiscent of National Geographic, I strive to fulfill the mandate of Parks Canada. "The Mandate" is the first exhibit published by Ellie Desgranges and will remain ongoing to document the ever-changing nature of national parks using a systematic, almost scientific methodology. Each series depicts a specific park, and each piece in a series was created as part of a set to provide a snapshot of representative features at a given time period (less than 5 years). These "before" images will be contrasted with a second set of "after" images, taken 5 to 10 years later, to demonstrate the changes in these features.

Prince Albert National Park Series

The "Prince Albert National Park" series contains the "before" images, taken between 2016 and 2020, which were first published in June 2019 and June 2020.

South of the Park

...including the Height-of-Land Lookout Tower, Shady Lake Trail and the Spruce River Highlands trail.