the True North Portrait Project

At its heart, the True North Portrait Project is about slowing down and truly seeing one another. Using the 19th-century wet plate collodion process, I’m creating portraits on glass of people from across Canada, one at a time, in person, in the moment. These aren’t snapshots or posed likenesses. They’re quiet conversations. They’re about presence. The camera doesn’t capture just how someone looks — it captures how they are.

This process is messy, imperfect, and deeply human. The exposures are long. The chemistry is unstable. The plates are fragile. That vulnerability is part of the story and a reminder of what it means to be seen clearly, without distraction.

This project asks the same questions I’ve carried since my youth:

• Who are we?

• What do we value?

• What connects us, or divides us, as Canadians today?

Although the project is still in its early stages, the goal is to travel across the country, creating a portrait of Canada one person at a time. The long-term vision includes a national exhibition and publication to coincide with Canada’s 160th anniversary in 2027.

About Ken Miner

I’m a photographic artist based in Victoria, British Columbia. My work explores stillness, mindfulness, and the quiet power of presence whether I’m using historic processes, film, or digital photography.

Before I became a photographer, I spent my early twenties as a long-haul truck driver, working routes between Winnipeg, Alberta, and Southern Ontario. That job gave me a firsthand view of the Canadian landscape and the people who live across it. I saw small towns, gravel roads, open prairie, and long stretches of highway. That experience left me with a lasting curiosity about who we are as a country.

Photography came later, but it gave me a way to explore that curiosity. It’s how I understand people, it’s how I help them see themselves.

The True North Portrait Project is a return to the road, but this time with a camera instead of a truck. I’m revisiting old questions, but now I’m turning them into images.