The world in bold; Newfoundland in abstract.

"It is the landscape that endures, it is the landscape that remains in control." — Ned Pratt

With Ned Pratt, there is no nostalgia, no romance, no theatre. His interest in the Newfoundland landscape forms the foundation for his photography.

Pratt's approach to the act of looking transcends place. He distills the landscape into abstractions of form and colour. Disrupting depth with close architectural details and incisions of poles and wires, he undermines the traditional, romantic notion of “looking out” to sublime geometry.

Ned Pratt: One Wave charts a decade of Pratt's breathtaking photography. Echoing Pratt's aesthetic, this beautifully designed book presents Pratt's works in formal conversation with each other. Stark imagery of buildings is juxtaposed with forays into abstraction and celebrations of the inherent geometry of natural forms — whether a single wave crashing over a wall or stones cracked by freezing and thawing.

Mireille Eagan is Curator of Canadian Art at The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, St. John's, a position she has held since January 2010. Prior to this, she was Curator at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Eagan has lectured nationally on Canadian art and has published several catalogues and essays on Canadian artists. She has a special interest in promoting the activities of artists based in the Atlantic provinces.

Mireille Eagan's profile page

Sarah Fillmore est conservatrice en chef au Musée des beaux-arts de la Nouvelle-Écosse, Halifax, et commissaire du Prix artistique Sobey. Fillmore travaille au Musée des beaux-arts de la Nouvelle-Écosse depuis 2005. en tant que conservatrice en chef, elle supervise la collection d'art provinciale ainsi que les acquisitions du musée et les programmes d'interprétation, d'éducation, de conservation et d'exposition. elle est commissaire du programme de résidence artistique et préside le jury du Prix artistique Sobey, le prix annuel prééminent pour un artiste de 40 ans ou moins du Canada.

Sarah Fillmore's profile page

Ray Cronin détient un baccalauréat en arts visuels du Nova Scotia College of Art and Design et une maîtrise en arts visuels de l'Université de Windsor. Cronin est directeur général du Musée des beaux-arts de la Nouvelle-Écosse où il a occupé différents postes depuis 2001, notamment conservateur de l'art contemporain et premier conservateur du Prix artistique Sobey. Auteur de plusieurs essais pour des catalogues et de nombreux articles parusdans des magazines d'art canadiens et américains, Cronin a reçu en 2000 le prix Cristina-Sabat de la critique d'art. Parmi ses projets d'exposition récents et à venir, mentionnons des rétrospectives de l'œuvre de Thierry Delva, Nancy Edell, Chris Hanson et Hendrika Sonnenberg, ainsi que les expositions itinérantes Graeme Patterson : Woodrow et Arena : The Art of Hockey.

Ray Cronin's profile page

Jonathan Shaughnessy is Associate Curator, Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada.

Jonathan Shaughnessy's profile page

"Pratt embraces this harsh land, celebrates it, in all its glorious starkness. His sharp, in-your-face angles crash hard, whether he’s giving us a glimpse of ocean from a ferry, a wave crashing over a breaker, a snowdrift, a red-striped trailer or a guardrail by the roadside, fog on rocks, a frozen slab of seawater or a lone shack shelter in a storm of white."

<i>Atlantic Books Today</i>