Panel Discussion | The Long View: Repeat Photography in Science and Art

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The Mountain Legacy Project (MLP) is an archive and research project that produces and analyzes repeat photographic documentation of western Canada’s mountain ranges over the last century to assess glacial recession and other types of landscape change. Inspired by the MLP archive, artist Desirée Patterson is creating lenticular sculptures that interpret two pairs of repeat photographs for her forthcoming solo exhibition, Interglacial. In this panel, Patterson and MLP founder and director Dr. Eric 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.

Event livestream will feature closed-captioning. The Reach strives to be inclusive and accessible to all audiences and we are working towards securing the necessary resources to do so. While we cannot guarantee that we will be able to accommodate all requests at this time, we encourage you to contact The Reach in advance ([email protected]) to convey your individual accessibility considerations and will do our best to allow you to enjoy this event. Thank you for your collaboration!

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).

Desirée Patterson is a Vancouver-based artist whose multidisciplinary practice is deeply rooted in photography. Fluent in lens-based and lensless processes, her aesthetic vision is closely tied to western Canada’s mountainous and glacial landscapes, transforming scientific data and embodied knowledge into captivating multisensory experiences. The ecological consciousness central to her work has been shaped by her experience of travelling solo to more than forty countries. She is currently Artist in Residence with the United Nations’ International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation initiative in Canada and her upcoming travelling solo exhibition, Interglacial, will debut at The Reach in June 2026.

Kelley Tialiou is the Curator of Art & Visual Culture at The Reach and has previously held positions in the curatorial departments of the Davis Museum at Wellesley College and the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy. She is the managing curator of the 2026 Capture Photography Festival Featured Exhibition, Parallax(e), and is is currently organizing Interglacial, an upcoming solo exhibition by Desirée Patterson that focuses on the present as a critical juncture in deep history, in which the global climate crisis puts the future of our planet, and all the living beings it hosts, in the balance.