CANMORE – Steve Speer has cruised along Highway 22X more times than he can count.
Revisiting the wide-open prairie and rising foothills time and time again, the roadside scenes have culminated in a five-image series that embodies the spirit of the West for the Calgary-based landscape photographer.
“It’s one of my favourite drives in Alberta,” says Speer, who is also the featured artist in the Canmore Art Guild’s (CAG) Spirit of the West show.
Turning pillowing storm clouds in The Rain on the Plain and crisp fall leaves in Autumn Light into monochrome scenes, Speer’s work hangs alongside images from eight other photographers at the Canmore Art Guild’s Spirit of the West photography exhibit.
From the action of small-town rodeos to abandoned buildings that stand alone on the prairies, the annual show, running until Feb. 23, asks photographers to capture the essence of the West through their lens.
“We intentionally looked for a theme that is broad enough that all the contributing photographers can find a place for themselves within the theme,” said Kevin McCormick, Canmore landscape and wildlife photographer and curator of the CAG show.
Awed by the wild horses that roam through Sundre, artist Brenda Kelly combines her photographs and paintings into her digital series Wild Horses.
For others, like Canmore photographer Patrick McCloskey, the West is all about the grit of barrel racing and steer wrestling.
“They’re not the standard (rodeo) images that you might anticipate. (Patrick) shot them with what would be considered a long shutter speed so that the images are somewhat blurred,” said McCormick.
“They reinforce the motion that’s involved in some of these events.”
With three images of his own on display, McCormick finds the Western spirit in past generations.
“My thought is the spirit of the West really resides within the people that occupy the landscape – very much the rural landscape,” he said.
“…You needed some pretty tough-minded and tough individuals that were able to survive and thrive in this sort of a landscape.”
Hitting the pavement on his favourite backroads north of Cochrane, McCormick captures the spirit of ranching in his photo Sunday Brunch, a panoramic of cattle grazing in a frost-covered pasture.
“I’m an Eastern Ontario boy, but I certainly grew up in a rural landscape. I think it’s still very much part of me,” McCormick added.
“When I see these areas here [in Alberta], particularly the rural aspects of the West, they certainly resonate with me as well.”
Preserving print
For many photographers, the greatest resting place for an image isn’t lost on a hard drive or buried in a social media abyss, but instead hanging on a wall – carefully framed, hung and well lit.
“What you see online is just kind of a flash on the screen that passes by you very quickly and you get inundated with a lot of images and there’s competition for catching people’s attention,” said McCormick.
“In reality, photography in the broadest sense, is much more subtle than that. I think you need time to kind of look at images and ponder them a bit and really appreciate the subtleties, … and that’s not really possible other than seeing them in kind of the printed form.”
Slingin’ a camera since 1973, Speer agrees that print is what it’s all about.
“It’s very important to have all of the pieces working towards the final presentation of the image and I want people to spend time with my imagery,” he said.
“I find that it is more appropriate to show it as a print as opposed to, ‘here have a look on my phone.’”
From the moment he steps into the field, whether the streets of Italy or the quiet expanse of the prairie, Speer is thinking about his final creation – a tangible photo that brings life to an image.
“My preference without question is to put things on paper and to that point not just putting things on paper, but selecting paper that is appropriate for the feel of the image that I want to project,” he said, noting the printing process is an art in itself.
Capturing both urban and rural landscapes, Speer gravitates toward black and white photography, a style that emerged from his early days in the dark room shooting film.
“Photography for me is a lifestyle not a hobby. I live and breathe for photography. … It’s part of the fabric of who I am as a person,” adds Speer. “I love the process. I just feel like there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”
Spirit of the West is the CAG’s contribution to the Calgary-based Exposure Photography Festival that showcases the work of over 200 photographs in exhibitions across the province.
The exhibit is on display at the Canmore Art Guild Gallery in Elevation Place until Feb. 23.
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. This position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.
By Leah Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Feb 17, 2026 at 09:22
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