English Bay 1927

Levon West made "English Bay" as an etching, using delicate lines to build up a scene of riders in shallow water. The whole thing feels like a memory, a gentle wash of tones, like an image fading into time. Look at how the reflections shimmer; they are almost more solid than the riders themselves, or the distant treeline on the shore. It's like West is playing with what's real and what's not, a kind of visual echo that messes with your head in the best way. Notice too, the physical act of pressing the plate onto paper has left an indentation on the work. This is like a ghostly residue of the action that created the image. West later changed his name to Ivan Dmitri and became a photographer. Maybe he was searching for a more immediate way to capture a picture, but there's something magical in this earlier print, this layering of time and technique that reminds me of Whistler's tonalist etchings. It's this kind of quiet, thoughtful work that keeps me searching for the unexpected.