Photographer Martin Lamprecht says of his Photo
Awen’ Spiritual Gathering Place ~ (2nd Place Adult – 2020)
I have had an interest in the story of North America’s indigenous people for a very long time. Before moving to Collingwood, I was volunteer photographer for the Dufferin County Cultural Resource Circle and recorded events like Pow Wows for the group in Orangeville. In Collingwood, I was pleasantly surprised to find the magnificent Awen’ Gathering Place in Harbourview Park and to discover the background story about how it was created only months before I became a Collingwood resident. One evening in June 2019, I found the Gathering Place set in a magical light of the Blue Hour, with a thin sliver of the moon in the sky and the lights on in the structure of cedar poles and steel canopies set again the dark line of trees behind it. It was just magical and it perfectly suited the spirit of this beautiful monument to the culture of our indigenous people. In post processing, I try to stick to minor adjustments with the objective to show what I saw with my eyes and felt in my mind.