Ryan Walker VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS

Toronto, Canada-based photographer Ryan Walker has an interest in people who, he says, “eschew what E. M. Forster calls ‘the architecture of hurry’ that comprises contemporary urban environments.”

Walker’s first priority before picking up his camera is to cultivate a sense of meaning and transparency with his subjects—a lesson he learned from assisting Magnum photographer Larry Towell. Through his photography, he presents “alternative, self-sustainable lifestyles and ideologies” with the hope of engendering a meaningful dialogue about the relationship of humans and their environments.

While attending Ryerson University, Walker was exposed to Robert Frank’s The Americans, which he says will forever inspire him as a photographer. “It was then that I realized how photography has the ability to express and communicate a person’s thoughts, ideologies and diverse perspectives in engaging and poetic ways,” he says. “I was hooked.”

Continually exploring themes of land and identity, he embarked on his series “Voices in the Wilderness” after learning of the “offgrid” Lasqueti Island, located off the west coast of Canada, while working on another project. He first visited the island in 2014, expecting a utopia of “back-to-the-landers and New Age hippies,” but what he found was more akin to a “microcosm of society” composed of 350 residents of diverse backgrounds.

While getting to know the community, Walker began to realize that although it was not as idyllic as he originally expected, it could be a model for sustainable and autonomous societies. “There is a heightened connectedness with not only the land around them, but also their neighbors,” he notes. “The challenges of living on a remote island bring them together, creating a more authentic and genuine connection that is often lacking in urban cities.”

—Lindsay Comstock

Photos © Ryan Walker ryanwalkerphoto.ca