The Long View: Repeat Photography in Science and Art (virtual)

For over a century, photography has served as an invaluable tool in documenting landscapes. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, several geographic survey projects produced thousands of glass-plate images capturing views of the multitude of mountain ranges across Western Canada, which today can be found in archives across Canada. In the late 1990s, visual ecologist Dr. Eric Higgs set out to digitize and catalogue some these plates. Thus, the Mountain Legacy Project (MLP) was born. Since then, more than 28,000 glass plates have been digitized. The MLP, however, is more than just an archive; it is also an ecological research project that uses the method of repeat photography to document and analyze glacial recession and other types of changes in the landscape.

In 2025, in the context of her residency with the UN’s International Year for Glaciers’ Preservation initiative, Vancouver-based artist and environmentalist Desirée Patterson crossed paths with Dr. Higgs. Inspired by the MLP archive, Patterson is collaborating with Dr. Higgs on the creation of two lenticular sculptures that interpret two pairs of repeat photographs for her upcoming solo exhibition, Interglacial, debuting at The Reach in June 2026. In this panel, moderated by The Reach’s Curator of Art & Visual Culture, Kelley Tialiou, Patterson and Dr. Higgs will discuss their interdisciplinary collaboration, what role(s) repeat photography plays in their respective fields, and how it can uniquely visualize the urgency of climate crisis.

SPEAKERS
Dr. Eric Higgs, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, studies how we intervene responsibly in ecosystems undergoing rapid change. He founded and has, since 2006, directed the interdisciplinary field-based Mountain Legacy Project, which is dedicated to the study of long-term landscape change in Canada’s mountains using repeat photography. He is the author of more than one hundred articles and book chapters, and authored, co-authored and edited four books. He has served as chair of the Society for Ecological Restoration (2001–03) and Director of UVic’s School of Environmental Studies (2002–10).

https://www.erichiggs.ca/

Desirée Patterson is a Vancouver-based artist and alumna of The Reach’s Emerge program whose multidisciplinary practice is rooted deeply in the discipline of photography. Born and raised in BC’s Lower Mainland, her aesthetic vision is closely tied to the province’s mountainous and glacial landscapes, explored through independent research and scientific collaboration. Fluent in lens-based and lensless processes, Patterson develops immersive projects that engage with photography, field expeditions, and ecological data to produce captivating sensory experiences. She is drawn to art’s capacity to bridge research and public imagination, extending photography beyond representation into installation and lived encounter. In 2025, she was Artist in Residence with the United Nations’s International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation initiative in Canada. Her work has been shown in several group and solo exhibitions, including the Emerge 10th Anniversary Exhibition (2024–25) at The Reach. Over the last decade, major public art projects by Patterson have been commissioned by TransLink (2019), BC Children’s Hospital (2016), the City of Richmond (2024) and the City of Abbotsford (forthcoming 2026), among others.

https://desireepatterson.com/

This event is presented as part of the 2026 Capture Photography Festival.