What we cover, how we choose and check our stories, and how you can send us one.
We are an independent editorial team in Sudbury. Our work is documentary photography with the stories around it, drawn from communities across Canada and told at the pace of the people in them.
We publish photo essays, interviews, portraits of towns and neighbourhoods, and small scenes from daily life. A story fits when it shows how people live, work, gather and look after one another. It can be about a craft, a street, a rink, a garden plot or a Sunday meal. Size does not matter, but a clear sense of place does.
We do not run campaigns, breaking news or stories written to provoke. We avoid guesses about people's motives and anything that would expose someone who has not agreed to be seen. Sponsored material, if it ever appears, would be labelled plainly and kept apart from our editorial pages, and it would never be presented as one of our own stories.
If you know a place, a person or a routine worth a closer look, write to the editors using the contact page. Tell us where it is, who is involved and why it matters to you. We read every message, reply when we can, and will not publish anything about someone without a conversation first.
A small team can only do careful work if it agrees on a few plain rules. Ours decide who we approach, how long we stay, what a caption may say and when a story is ready. They are tested on every assignment, from a single portrait to a month-long essay.
Respect begins before the camera comes out. We introduce ourselves, explain where the pictures and words will appear, and accept a no without argument. People can see their portrait before publication and ask for changes to how they are described. Photographs show people as they live, never as an illustration of a theme or a problem.
Curiosity is what keeps us returning to the same street or workshop. Editors ask what a place smells like, who opens up first, and what the regulars call things. The best details usually come on a second or third visit, once the camera is part of the room and people stop performing for it.
Honest storytelling means captions that say only what we saw or were told. We check names, spellings and places, mark what a person said in their own words, and avoid dramatic framing. When we are unsure, we ask again or leave the detail out, and when we are wrong, we fix it.
Each story passes through the same few stages, whatever its size. The steps keep our attention on the people involved and give an editor several chances to catch errors. This is the usual path from an idea to the page you read.
Ideas come from our editors' own walks and conversations, and from messages sent in by readers. We look for a place, a craft or a routine that can be followed closely and told with photographs. Before anything is promised, an editor reaches out, explains what we do and listens to what the person or group is comfortable with.
The photographer or interviewer visits more than once where possible. The first visit is for meeting people and learning how the day runs, and the camera often stays quiet. Later visits bring the images and recorded conversations that make the final piece, and notes are kept on names, spellings and details for the captions.
The section editor chooses and sequences the photographs, then drafts captions and text. Editor-in-chief Margaret Tremblay edits every photo essay. Names, places and quotes are checked against our notes, and the people featured are invited to read what we plan to publish so they can point out anything that is inaccurate.
Stories are published with a date and filed under one of our four sections. If a reader or a participant finds an error, we fix it and say so on the page. Requests to change how someone is described are taken seriously and answered personally by the editor who worked on the piece.
By email: [email protected]
Photographs and stories from our communities