Kyler Zeleny Book Launch: Bury Me in the Back Forty
Photographer, educator, and writer Kyler Zeleny releases the final photobook in his Canadian Prairie trilogy, Bury Me in the Back Forty. Shortlisted for the 2021 Burtynsky Grant, the book takes a deep dive into the artist’s hometown of Mundare, Alberta.
The work explores ideas of deviance and conformity, and joy and tragedy, to paint a picture of a community that is both unique and emblematic of rural life in North America. The photobook is an invitation to engage with the complexities of place, and to embrace the multitude of stories that shape understandings of home.
Join Zeleny as he shows work from this long-term project and discusses the key themes of the book, which include the complexity of returning to home, the future of rural representation in Canada, and the idea of balanced and complex representations of homeplace.
Kyler Zeleny (1988) is a Canadian photographer, educator and author of Out West (2014), Found Polaroids (2017), and Crown Ditch & The Prairie Castle (2020). He holds bachelors in Political Science from the University of Alberta, a masters from Goldsmiths College, in Photography and Urban Cultures and a PhD from the joint Communication & Culture program at TMU and York University. His work has been exhibited internationally in twelve countries and has been featured in numerous publications including The Globe & Mail, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Vice, and The Independent. He occupies his time by exploring photography on the Canadian prairies.