Chase, Colin

Colin Chase grew up in Port Williams, Nova Scotia. Largely self-taught, he began snapping pictures with his trusty Kodak Instamatic while in elementary school. He soon graduated to 35mm and decided that he wanted to be a photographer when he grew up. His grade 9 English teacher, Harold MacLeod, taught him an appreciation of black and white photography and photo printing (and of really bad jokes). After 33 years as an educator, mostly in the Hants West area, he finally retired to be able to devote more time to photographing the beautiful scenery here in the Annapolis Valley.

Colin has participated in photography seminars and workshops presented by Freeman Patterson, André Gallant and Sherman Hines. In 1987 he won first prize and an honourable mention for two photographs in the ‘One Day in the Life of Halifax’ photo contest sponsored by Carsand Mosher Photographic. He won ‘Best Photograph Printed by Entrant’ in the 1988 Camera Canada College photo competition.

Colin resides in Kentville with his wife, Isabella. He is a founding member of the Tides Contemporary Art Gallery in Kentville which opened in November 2019. He is also a member of the viewPoint Gallery Photographic Art Cooperative, Halifax. 

Artist Statement

I have the great privilege to live in the eastern Annapolis Valley—an amazing part of Nova Scotia. I find great beauty and peace in the rows of newly planted fields as the sun comes up in the morning and in the crash of the waves on the Fundy shore. Through my photographs, I work to capture this beauty in both a true and an artistic way and want to celebrate what I love about my home in the forms and textures of the land, the power of the sea, and the spirit of the people. I document the here and now and pay homage to the past that I knew growing up.