RYAN FOERSTER: Growing up in Canada, they really enforce
the group of seven.
That's all you learn about in art history class.
The group of seven were all these painters who basically
only painted landscapes.
The worst shit you would see with your parents.
Like you would go to the museums in Canada, and that's,
like, everything you would look at.
And you're like, you don't care about looking at trees.
So I just read some stuff about Tom Thomson living in
the woods, like living in shacks and just painting.
Even though I don't really like his paintings, I was
like, oh, I can respect that.
Like I could see myself doing that, you know.
It was like trying to challenge myself into taking
pictures in these situations.
I wanted to go up and have my own head space after being in
New York for a bit.
It was kind of overwhelming, and it was just nice to then
be able to go somewhere and not really worry about it--
like a specific time or whatever.
Yeah, and I stayed there for three months, I guess.
So this is the hole I have.
Come out here every morning, break the ice, fill up old
buckets of water, bring them in so I don't have
to shit in the woods.
So I can go flush out the toilet.
Something to clean dishes.
Something to drink.
You get scared when you're walking around because it was
dark at 5 o'clock out there, and there's no light.
So it was just kind of scary when I'd go out at night and
then realize how far I am from the cabin, kind of, and just
see the light on and realize how far away
you could see that.
It felt like anyone in a certain amount of distance
would obviously know someone was there when they hadn't
been for x amount of years.
I had friends go up for a weekend from Montreal.
It was kind of a weird situation because I was meant
to be there alone and just like work on my art.
And then it was just this weird community that you're
in, when you're like totally separated from
the rest of the world.
I never saw anyone else when I was out there really.
-Oh my god.
RYAN FOERSTER: And my girlfriend would come up.
RYAN FOERSTER: Woo.
Whoa whoa whoa.
[LAUGHTER]
RYAN FOERSTER: Like said that I'd just talk her ear off
because I hadn't talked to anyone for like five days.
She's like, all right, I got to go.
Now I prefer to have things that are confusing a bit--
that the situation you don't exactly know what's going on.
Like you wouldn't exactly tell that there's a tree in this
photo, and it looks like they're going into something,
like going into Hell or--
I don't know.
You can't tell the situation they're in.
It makes it a bit more timeless, I guess.
-Yeah, it's fucking warm in here.
It's way warmer than I thought it was going to be.
RYAN FOERSTER: Iris brought up that space heater so, that
helps it a lot.
-How many long-johns do you got on?
RYAN FOERSTER: Two pairs.
-Two pairs?
RYAN FOERSTER: Same two pairs I've been wearing since I got
up here.
-When was the last time you were in the city?
RYAN FOERSTER: I went in just over a week ago.
Because then I was up here for a week, and I wasn't sure if I
was doing anything good or not.
So then I just brought all the film that I had, and we got it
done in one of those 24 hour places.
And then just got everything back to make
sure it's on track.
-And you're doing good?
RYAN FOERSTER: Yeah.
It's work.
It's coming along.
I had probably like 200 photocopies of paintings and
photographs of shit, Rembrandt or Vermeer.
And I liked a lot of these classical poses and then liked
that idea of it still being spontaneous but having really
dark photographs, so that they almost look painterly now.
And then having a fairly graceful pose that the person
uses and making it a quieter, specific moment, even though
it might have been a really loud situation.
So I wait for that to happen.
And it might take a long time, but then I keep trying those.
-So what are we going to use?
Just those little ones?
-Like this type of shit's good for washrooms.
-Because it's got three different colors, so that'll
give you enough time to get [INAUDIBLE] some shots, eh?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
RYAN FOERSTER: Get back in there.
-Let's just--
RYAN FOERSTER: Cause it looks like it has three heads there
all of sudden.
Had this photo that I wanted to get of him with like a
blast of light hitting him, but it didn't really work out.
We didn't, whatever, set off enough fireworks.
This photo's kind of like the real afterthought where he's
then pulling open the window and let all the smoke out.
Works out as a better photograph in that way because
then it's like that aftermath of this situation that was
already happening that wasn't real.
Looks like he's escaping from something, when it's like he's
actually then kind of back in the real situation.