The Island

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INTRODUCTION

Lionel F. Stevenson speaks and works for all of us who are Island-defined when he says, ÒSometimes it's hard to stay awake, everything is so familiar. I'd just become part of it and not look anymore, if I didn't work to stay awake and aware.ÓIn this volume, his first published collection,Lionel shares his creativity and attention with the people around him by relating and living through his camera in a very genuine way.Stevenson's black and white work invites a growing depth of interaction, sometimes with just a suggestion in the distance, sometimes in the form of shaded faces or figures that jump out of the shadows once we realize they are there. He seems to prefer photographing in natural, unflashy, but essentially vibrant ways. The people and the landscapes are most often caught in a thoughtful,timeless stance. These photographs are rare examples of the balance of restraint and warmth which so characterizes the concept of'Island'.They are 'survival shots' from a time and a place of many austerities and luxuries; the images show why we continue to prosper in body and spirit.Here is a controlled excitement, an independence of interpretation, a feeling of'Here I am, all alone, in sight of this beautiful Island'.This is Lionel Stevenson's camera art of optimistic realism on Prince Edward Island: we are surrounded by an ocean of limitation and pure open potential in one and the same breath.

KAREN EMILY LIPS
Canadian Society of Landscape Architects

REVIEW

In twenty-eight black-and-white photos, Lionel Stevenson captures more of the Island's essence than any CBC special ever produced. Oh, the horse and buggy are still there (or here) all right, and so are the dilapidated buildings and cars, but Stevenson sees them for what they are, realities of Island life, not symbols of poverty or pleas for larger transfer payments.
One reality of Island life is contrast, and Stevenson captures this in many of his pictures. For example, a photo entitled "Tignish Run" depicts a fishing boat tied up at the wharf and in the background is an old bait shed, sans windows, sans doors, sans most of its cedar shingles, grudgingly giving way to a new concrete and steel replacement. This same contrast is seen in "Hope River" where the background is a saddle-backed old saw mill and the foreground two mail boxes, one on a wooden stake, the other (with the latest national flag decal on its side) on a newly rust-proofed steel pipe.
The more you study these photos of beaches, pastures, streets, and the working people who give them meaning, the more you will see. I only wish you could see them in colour and in person on Prince Edward Island.


Clare A. Darby, Three Oaks S. H. S., Summerside, PEI

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