Roger Dorband • Waterfront 2

In spite of our happy times here there is a fundamentally melancholy and loneliness about the North Coast region. Its roots are in the tragic history of the Chinook, who thrived in these lands for millennia, but who had no immunity to white man’s diseases which killed more than 80% of their people. Fishing and logging, both dangerous occupations which have resulted in many lives lost over the years became the drivers of our economy but now are fading industries contributing to the undercurrent of sadness and division in our local culture that merges with the gloominess of the weather here giving the region an undercurrent of melancholy. Still there is great beauty here. The river's and ocean's grandeur and timelessness give us hope, a faith in something transcendent and the rapture we can find walking their shores. When I can celebrate the great beauty that is apparent here along side of the shadow cast by the region's tragedies and former glory in a single photograph I feel most satisfied with my work.