When Sudbury poet and author Kim Fahner is out in nature, what she sees are poems.
She often grabs her phone to capture the beauty of the moment, and then it becomes a poem in her head.
Fahner, who was Greater Sudbury’s poet laureate from 2016-2018, is sharing a glimpse into how she sees the world in her new exhibit of photography.
Put on by the Art Gallery of Sudbury and curated by Ally Carlos, the exhibit opened at Pinchman's Café & Artisan Bakery April 28 and runs through until July 28.
The exhibit features Fahner’s photos from Northern and Southwestern Ontario, Ireland, Nova Scotia and British Columbia from 2018-2024.
“It's almost as if I see these photographs as like poems,” Fahner said.
“So I always will say, if I see something really beautiful when I'm canoeing with my friend Jen, or I have in the past said to her, that's a painting and a poem.
And then she'll notice and slow the canoe down so I can take a photo, because I just sort of see an image, and then it becomes a poem in my head. So that's how I write poetry, is the image is the start of a poem. It makes sense to me that the image and the word are connected.”
Appropriately, Fahner has written a poem for each of the photos included in her exhibit. As the photos are up for sale, Fahner said purchasers will receive a copy of the poem along with the images when the exhibit ends this summer.
Fahner’s exhibit at Pinchman’s is entitled “Divining Rod: How to walk through the liminality of thin spaces.”
“For me, nature has been part of my creative process since I was little, and since I like to be outside, I swim in the summers, I hike, I canoe,” she said.
“Those things are part of who I am now as a person, but also as a writer. So I feel like a divining rod when I write or create anything new in terms of art, if I'm working in an art form, like embroidery or something, but I'm just aware of how the process moves through me like a divining rod would be.
“And then liminality is just like the thin spaces. That's a Celtic reference to the veil between worlds, that it's not very thick, it's a thin veil. So if you're willing to take the time to observe what's around you, the smallest things have great meaning.
“Liminality is that space in between that you can't quite define. It's kind of magic. So not just rushing through a walk in the woods or the bush, but really being mindful of how you move through the natural world.”
Fahner said she has experienced mobility challenges over the past year, and can’t get out in nature as much, so the exhibit has meant a lot to her.
Seeing the photos “is odd to me because those were the times I could move easily without pain through those spaces. So, I’m looking forward to when I can do that again.”
To learn more about Fahner’s exhibit, visit the art gallery’s website.
Fahner has also sent us one of the poems she wrote for the exhibit, for a photo titled Picnic at Chutes. You can read that below.
Picnic at Chutes
June 2021
What’s beyond the frame
are two people you can’t see,
and images of a day at Chutes
filled with laughter, stories,
tossed grapes, shared almonds,
warm apples, borrowed clementines.
A long walk, wildflowers,
and then wading into movement
of tadpoles rioting in June’s sunlit,
sparkling water—before the rapids
sweep the bright memory away,
through the years, downstream.
Kim Fahner
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.