A kitchen at blue hour with fish cakes frying on the stove. Patterned wallpaper, faded posters and worn furnishings suggest a lived-in and long-preserved space.
Interior view of a home in Tilting, Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador. Fish cakes fry on the stove at blue hour in a kitchen that has remained largely untouched since the home was passed down within the family.
This image is part of a larger body of work titled Grebe’s Nest that examines island life in Newfoundland and how its rural communities negotiate identity, attachment, and survival amid economic change, geographic isolation and cultural shifts. Grebes are specialized water birds that rely on fish who are known to build floating nests tethered to surrounding vegetation. These structures are both adaptive and precarious, qualities that resonate throughout the island of Newfoundland: a rugged island tethered to the North American mainland, inhabited by communities historically dependent on its surrounding waters for survival. Events like the Newfoundland Resettlement Program beginning in 1952 and the Northern Cod Moratorium in 1992 contributed to massive social and economic transformations that have shaped Newfoundland over the last century. The project considers how experiences of loss, endurance and longing become embedded within both the landscape and everyday life.
Explore the other stories–Ethan Murphy is a photographer based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including recent exhibitions with the Bonavista Biennale, Fogo Island Arts and the National Gallery of Canada. His work is held in multiple collections such as The Image Centre in Toronto, The Rooms, Scotiabank, and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. He holds a BFA in Photography from Toronto Metropolitan University and was awarded the New Generation Photography Award in 2019.
