The Outdoor Rink

I have always loved walking past the outdoor skating rink in my local park at night. I have always been struck by the warm halo of light filled with hockey players or families surrounded by the cold darkness lurking just outside the rink walls. It's a scene that plays out across Canada in the winter. It inspired me to document community ice rinks in the Ottawa area. I photographed more than two dozen rinks in a cross section of neighbourhoods from suburban to inner city rinks to small ponds in the forest just outside of the city. I took the photos in the dark when the rinks were empty to capture their unique, timeless essence. These photos are samples of the larger photographic series. Ottawa, Canada's capital, has more than 270 skating rinks in public in parks - the most in the country. They are cared for by community volunteers who spend countless hours every night flooding and cleaning the rinks from December right through to the end of March. I discovered that no matter the location, people are deeply attached to their outdoor rinks. The local rinks became even more important during the first full winter of the pandemic as they turned into one of the few places where people could have fun. As the community coped with lockdowns and the loss of normal life many turned to the one reliable constant of winter in the region - The Outdoor Rink.