Girls from the local Oromo community join their wider community of Sunalta in the downtown neighbourhood inside the City of Calgary to celebrate the annual tradition of the Calgary Stampede. Over loudspeakers comes the unfamiliar rhythms of their own traditional music momentarily supplanting the Country and Western music of the day.

Dev Diwali, or Kartik Purnima, is one of the most important days in the Hindu calendar and a time for immense celebrations. The day gets going with an energy that begins to ramp up as night approaches. Here people from neighbouring Rajasthan crank up the party atmosphere with drumming and young men showing off their moves, pretty much perfecting “the grind”. Smoke from the cremation fires encircles the group with acrid, lung-burning fumes. Varanasi, India is the oldest city in the world and is an amazing place to see this great event as it continues through the night and into the next day.

Pretty much the best thing that could happen to a photographer of any stature is when you realize that the camera actually helps you make a connection you would not have otherwise. Women at Tulsi and Assi Ghats in Varanasi are so overjoyed by the marriage ceremony of Tulsi Vivah, that they begin to dance with the camera. This is where taking photos makes a whole trip so worthwhile!

In true Iban tribal tradition, when a warrior arrives back from a successful battle or distant travels through the jungles in Borneo, at one time carrying the heads of his enemies he had collected along the way, he would present a dance to show his fierceness. This rare opportunity to see and hear this dance to drums and gongs on this hot, black night at the communal longhouse was very special. The kids share crayons and colouring books that I purchased in Kota Kinabalu and the Chief and I consume huge amounts of his home-made whiskey and cheer and dance along. The young warrior moves slowly with grace surprising now and then with a bark-like scream that made us all feel the fever of battle. For every shot of the whiskey the Chief commands the families to repeat a toast of “oooooo-HHAAA!” as loud as we can as is the ancient tradition. Eventually a breeze off of the jungle river calls for bedtime and mats and mosquito nets are hung in the open space and at once it is only the bugs and critters that are awake. I lay on the floor thinking about where each of our paths are intertwined yet worlds away.

Young women compete in Fancy Shawl dancing at the National Indigenous Cultural Expo 2018 in Edmonton, Alberta where hundreds come to challenge for money and honours. It is difficult to document the motions and emotions watching this dance. The drum beats loud and the men wail to its rhythm. There is so much intensity packaged in these girls. This means everything to them.

Calgary Street Project - Street name “Goodness” is my muse. I stay close while he dances to a tiny and beaten laptop. He is blind to the judgement others unleash on him. His energy eclipses all of them.

Calgary Street Project - street name Goodness floated above cement the entire 10 minutes I was shooting him. He is an angel I believe.