Orest Semchishen: In Plain View/Voir Clair

Orest Semchishen's photographs of the Canadian prairies depict vital but disappearing pockets of culture composed of northern trappers, small towns, and Ukrainian Catholic, Russian Orthodox, and Japanese Buddhist religious communities. Semchishen presents a straightforward view of plains society often overlooked by casual observers: the facade of a rustic house, a hotel built in the days of the frontier, a remote post office no larger than a shack, a barbed wire fence stretching over the expanse of prairie, and Byzantine churches appearing out of place with their onion-shaped domes. Others photographs reveal the interiors of buildings or religious ceremonies rarely seen by outsiders: trappers' cabins, the home of a Buddhist monk, the altars of Ukrainian and Russian churches, and an Easter service in Edson, Alberta. While most of these 46 quadrotone reproductions depict scenes in Alberta, some are of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland. An essay by Martha Hanna covers Semchishen's background and photojournalistic style.. Orest Semchishen's photography was the subject of In Plain View, a solo exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography from April 7 to June19, 1994. His photography also has been exhibited at the National Film Board of Canada, Ottawa, and the Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton.