Avatar Grove Photography Installation Featured in New Downtown Vancouver Bookstore

A large-scale photography installation by renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky featuring one of Vancouver Island’s most stunning ancient rainforests, Avatar Grove, will grace the walls of the new Indigo bookstore, opening today on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver. The installation incudes a short description of the importance and status of BC’s endangered old-growth forests and, thanks to the photographer’s support of our work, also mentions the Ancient Forest Alliance!

AFA Campaigner and Photographer TJ Watt worked alongside Burtynsky during filming and photography expeditions for The Anthropocene Project, a multidisciplinary body of work combining art, film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and scientific research that explores the impact humanity has had on the natural world. One of the locations they visited was Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory, which the AFA campaigned on and successfully protected in 2012 and which has become a well-known tourism attraction, drawing thousands of people from around the world every year.

Burtynsky captured striking photos of the grove, which, starting today, will be admired by many thousands of Indigo shoppers thanks to a friendship between the renowned photographer and Heather Reisman, Chief Executive of Indigo Books & Music. The arrangement also includes an extraordinarily generous donation of twenty-five thousand dollars to the Ancient Forest Alliance by Edward Burtynsky and a matching donation from Indigo in support of our work to protect endangered ancient forests!

The installation creates an exceptional opportunity to raise awareness of the beauty and grandeur of BC’s ancient forests, educate thousands of Indigo shoppers about their importance and status, and inspire Lower Mainlanders to explore those forests for themselves! A huge thank you to Edward Burtynsky and to Indigo Books and Music for supporting the ancient forest movement and the AFA!