Artist Statement
Christina Marie Comeau’s photographic practice explores liminal space where the ordinary transforms into something both luminous and insightful. In her work, she aspires to capture everyday scenes where common experiences are imbued with reverence and serve as a source of lyrical depth. Through a careful interplay of light, timing, composition, and material processes, her photographs seek to express resilience and sustainability not as abstract concepts, but as an embodied ethic.
Inspired by the beauty of rural and coastal environments, where community is deeply connected to land, sea, and sky, her images reflect a genuine ethic of care. In this way, weathered structures, seasonal rituals, and the actions shaped by generations give voice to values of integrity and endurance. Rooted in her Acadian heritage, Comeau’s work resists cultural erasure and ecological disconnection, inviting viewers to consider sustainability not merely as a theory, but as a way of life. This perspective becomes evident in the cyclical rituals of nature and the gestures of those who maintain ancestral relationships with their environments.
Rendered through the tactile processes of platinum-palladium and monochromatic printing, her work serves as meditations. Her prints are intended as a form of quiet resistance against the loss of cultural knowledge and ecological awareness. In this way, Comeau’s photography preserves not only what it depicts but also what it encourages us to remember: that true sustainability is lived, local, and deeply poetic.
Bio
Christina Marie Comeau is an Acadian, Ottawa-based fine-art photographer and printmaker whose multi-decade practice explores the relationships between people, place, and the enduring values of resilience and sustainability embedded in urban, rural, and coastal communities. A second-generation photographer, she established her technical foundations in the analog darkroom and has since advanced her practice through medium-format digital capture and refined, hand-crafted printing methods. Her work combines long-standing technical expertise with contemporary documentary and fine-art approaches, contributing to regional cultural narratives and community-focused visual research.
Working mainly in platinum–palladium printing and custom monochromatic inksets, Comeau employs slow, analogue methods to create images with subtle tonal depth, material permanence, and a contemplative sense of environmental magical realism. She is mentored by Pradip Malde, co-developer of the Malde–Ware platinum–palladium process and Professor of Art at the University of the South and by Natasha Royka, creative coach and champion of transdisciplinary art education. From her bespoke, environmentally controlled printing studio, Comeau produces museum-quality, handcrafted prints on premium fine-art papers.
Exhibitions
Continental Fragments: Group Exhibition, La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa, Canada, 2010
Saltwater Economies: Group Exhibition, School of Photographic Arts, Ottawa, 2026
Four Corners: Group Exhibition, Passage Gallery, Ottawa, November 2026
Publication
Publication in Sentinel magazine, the National Magazine of the Canadian Forces, 1992
Collections
Prints held in private collections
Education
Academic
2020 Master of Arts in Leadership, Royal Roads University
2023 PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo, School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability
Creative Mentoring
2020 Ongoing personalized mentorship with Natasha Royka, creative and transdisciplinary art education coach
Photography Training
2021 Monochrome Printmaking and Digital Negatives, Piezography, Cone Editions, Vermont, USA
2023 Platinum-Palladium Printing, Malde-Ware method, Cone Editions, Vermont, USA
2024 Masterclass and ongoing mentorship with Pradip Malde, co-inventor of the Malde-Ware method
2025 Project Development, School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa
2026 Artist-in-Residence, School of Photographic Arts, Ottawa