A Quiet War

A Quiet War brings photographs I made during the COVID-19 pandemic into conversation with photographs my father, Lieutenant Commander John C. Wilson, made while serving aboard HMCS Rosthern during the Second World War. It is not an attempt to equate the two events. Rather, the project asks what may pass between generations: ways of looking, enduring uncertainty, and carrying on when ordinary life is altered.

My father worked in wireless communications aboard ship, receiving Morse code warnings of enemy submarines. He photographed the life around him, developing his film in the ship’s bathtub when circumstances allowed. His photographs hold rough seas, ice, companionship, meals and the practical coordination of men doing what needed to be done.

Nearly eighty years later, confined close to home in Richmond, Ontario, I also turned to photography. The danger I was living with was largely invisible, so I photographed its traces and interruptions: a picnic table wrapped in caution tape, an upside-down toilet, a telephone booth standing alone in the woods, a garden hose, dark houses, winter roads, my husband carrying home a Christmas tree. The event is often outside the frame, but its presence changes the meaning of what remains inside it.

These photographs were not a newly discovered family archive. Years earlier, I had helped my father expand a short account of his life into the fuller story he wanted to leave his family. His wartime stories were familiar to me; they had often been shared around our family dinner table. During the pandemic, however, his photographs began to speak differently to my own. Connections appeared that I had not consciously constructed: his crew eating together and a local café adapting to drive-through service; his ship encased in ice and my own winter landscape; men coordinating between vessels and the quieter coordination of a life shared at home.

At one point I went to Lake Superior looking for waves that might echo the Atlantic in my father’s photographs. Instead, I found quiet water. That mismatch helped give the project its title.

A Quiet War exists in the space between these two bodies of photographs. My father and I, separated by nearly eighty years and very different circumstances, used cameras to orient ourselves when the world had become uncertain. The photographs do not resolve that uncertainty. They ask how we continue through it—and what we inherit from those who taught us how.

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Backyard with green grass, small tree, garden bed, wooden fence, and house siding, with a garden hose on the lawn.

A toppled wooden chair leaning against a tree, secured with yellow caution tape, in a yard with grass and fallen pine branches.

Rubble and debris, including broken tiles, a toppled fence, and a white washing machine, outside a damaged building with a fallen brick wall and window.

A white poodle dog lying on a blue sofa next to a white nightstand with a lamp, photo frame, and decorative objects, in a living room with natural light coming through a window.

An old black bathtub with a painted white skull on its side, placed on a leaf-covered ground near a small body of water, with houses and leafless trees in the background on a cold, overcast day.

A house at night with snow on the ground, illuminated by exterior lights and the glow of neon signs visible through the windows.

Snow-covered rustic building with string lights, parked black pickup truck, snow-covered trees in the background, and a snow-blanketed fence

A straight, dark asphalt road extending into the foggy, snow-covered horizon with white snow on either side and fog obscuring the distance.

A small Christmas tree stand with a sign that reads 'Christmas Trees' in a Christmas tree farm, with several Christmas trees and leafless trees in the background on an overcast day.

A snowy residential street with houses on both sides, utility poles and power lines, and several cars driving on the road, with snow piled along the edges.

Fallen tree with jagged roots on snow-covered ground in a forest with leafless trees.

A foggy scene with a streetlight on a pole, a street sign, and a billboard barely visible through dense fog, creating an eerie and obscured view.

A small roadside eatery called Tony's Chip Wagon with a sign listing menu items like shawarmas, donuts, French fries, poutine, Italian sausage, and pita wraps. The building has a glass door with an

A small white house with snow on the roof at night, two colored lights in the windows, and a large tree on the left side.

Snow-covered rocky shoreline with a frozen pond, sparse trees, and overcast gray sky.

Art installation featuring two concrete sculptures of human faces, one with a mustache and hat, and the other with short hair and closed eyes, mounted on a metal structure outdoors.

Empty self-serve car wash stall with a red sign, white walls, and snow on the roof and ground.

Nighttime snow-covered yard with a house illuminated from inside, two leafless trees, and a dark sky.

Nighttime snowy scene with a wooden fence, small decorated Christmas tree, and a streetlight illuminating the snow-covered ground.

A two-story white house with green shutters, a small front porch, and a leafless tree in front, situated between two other homes. There are two parked cars, one on each side of the house, on the street in a residential neighborhood during overcast we

A snow-covered trail winds through a dense, leafless forest on a cold, overcast day.

A Tim Hortons restaurant with a brick and wood exterior, snow on the parking lot, and a mostly clear evening sky.

Snow-covered residential neighborhood with modern houses, street lamps, and a snowy street during a snowstorm.

Snow-covered street with parked cars, traffic lights, utility poles, and buildings, winter scene with overcast sky.

Snow-covered forest path with trees and a fallen tree trunk in winter sunlight.

Snow-covered backyard at night with trees, a small building, picnic tables, trash cans, and tire tracks in the snow.

Snow-covered residential street at night with tire tracks, trees, houses, power lines, and streetlights illuminating the scene.

Snow-covered forest with trees and fallen branches under bright sunlight.

A snow-covered park with many trees and a fence adorned with glow-in-the-dark snowflake-shaped decorations. In front of the fence is a colorful sign that says, "You Got This!" in a vibrant, graffiti-style design.