Children play on an Innu swing, a Ueuepeshun, at an Innu camp on the western shores of Mistastin Lake, in the interior of northern Labrador on Sept. 21, 2014. Community leaders from Natuashish have come to these traditional Innu hunting grounds to help some of their young men and boys discover some of their culture and form better community bonds. The hope is that fewer of them will follow a path of substance abuse that has plagued these communities for many years.
Peter Power – class of ’89. After nearly three decades of editorial work for two of Canada’s largest newspapers, The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail, Peter is now working independently and accepting more corporate work and creative portrait projects.
The breadth of experience Peter has gained while working in Canada and abroad while photographing long-term documentary projects, four Olympic Games, famine, conflict, and natural disasters has earned him a reputation as one of Canada’s top story tellers.
His work has been recognized abundantly in Canada and internationally. Five times he has been named Photographer of the Year, has won four Canadian National Newspaper Awards (nominated nine times) and has won the prestigious Governor General’s Michener Award for Public Service Journalism. His work has been recognized by the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA), News Photographer’s Association of Canada (NPAC), Pictures of the Year International (POYi), the Society of Newspaper Design (SND) among others. His multimedia work has been recognized internationally as a Webby Award Honoree three times, a Webby Award Finalist once, a POYi winner, and NPAC POY winner.
“As an independent photography professional, I now have the ability to work in many areas of photography for a variety of clients but I will always maintain my love of story-telling. This image is part of a story I did on the people of Natuashish (formerly the island community of Davis Inlet) ten years after their old community was abandoned and re-established on the mainland of Labrador. Few media outlets provide updates on stories that make the headlines and I wanted to understand what the state of the community was ten years after the rash of problems in Davis Inlet forced the government to make such a dramatic move of the entire community. The full story, a long read that I shot and wrote, can be found at, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/hunting-demons/article23331533/
“No matter where I have travelled in my career, or what the stories were I was covering, I have always tried to find signs of beauty and of hope; in Haiti it was a little girl in a white dress walking home from her parents’ funeral, and in the rubble of Mogadishu it was a portrait of a child sitting atop her pet tortoise. And for the story of the people of Natuashish I I found this “escape” from the stories of suicide and addiction in the children playing a traditional Innu game while out on “the land.”
Peter also works as a photography instructor at two Ontario colleges and shares his experience and knowledge through instructional workshops and speaking engagements whenever possible.
Testimonial:
As a member of the Photojournalism program’s Class of ’89 (the second class ever!) I reflect fondly and with great appreciation upon the men and women whose vision brought a true photojournalism program to this country. The words “Photojournalism, Only at Loyalist College,” printed on a poster stopped me in my tracks when I first visited the college in 1987, and today there is still no other program quite like it. As they did when I was a student, today’s instructors continue to inspire new generations of story tellers with vast amount of knowledge, passion, and experience. The connection that Loyalist College’s Photojournalism program has enjoyed with professionals in the industry, here in Canada and more and more so internationally, provides a wide selection of opportunities for students to pursue their dreams and find outlets for their work.
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