It’s the kind of work that weathers the skin. Intrepid. It’s the kind of work that cripples egos and builds character. Poetic and simple; hard days of demanding work out in the cold on Lake Winnipeg concluded by the unsettling beauty of a rural Manitoba sunset.
Winnipeg photographer, writer Jonah O’Neil took his camera and spent some time last winter with David and Wendy Olson and their commercial fishing crew.
“Down the driveway we rumbled, across the highway, the bombadier’s skis scrapping on the pavement – and my teeth rattling in my head – then a nearly vertical descent into a deep ditch, and directly into a frozen marsh,” O’Neil said. “Winding through the marsh, we entered a treed area, then emerged out onto the wide-open expanse of Lake Winnipeg. After thundering along for about half an hour in the pre-dawn half-light, I witnessed something that not even those living in our relatively northern climate appreciate often enough …”
Click here to view O’Neil’s entire gallery. It’s worth a look.