Person wearing paintball gear and holding a paintball marker in a wooded area

Theatre of War

My work on this series began when I stumbled upon a paintball field on a day trip with my camera in 2014. Over the next four years (until 2018), at various courses in Ontario, I photographed players as well as the field structures and abandoned vehicles that lend battlefield realism to this popular mock-warfare game. Theatre of War is a reflection on the narratives we nurture, including those buried deep in the psyche and in our past. There are polarities at play: pursuer and pursued, hunter and prey, realism and the imagination; individuals become actors of a sort, soldiers in a make-believe war.

My thanks to the owners of the following paintball fields: Commando Action Centre (Marie Longtin and David Pitts), Ottawa, Ontario; Barrie Paintball (Mike Clark), Barrie, Ontario; PRZ Paintball, Picton, Ontario; and DMZ Paintball, St. Catharines, Ontario.

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Person dressed in a ghillie suit holding a paintball gun outdoors in a wooded area.
An abandoned building, splattered in paintball ammunition, with boarded windows and overgrown weeds and rusty barrel and pallet in front, and old gas pump at the center with an statue hand on top of the roof.
A young person dressed in paintball gear, including a helmet and vest, standing on a weathered picnic table near a body of water, holding a paintball gun with an overcast sky in the background.
Old window and walls splattered with paintball ammunition.
Three individuals dressed in camouflage paintball gear sitting outdoors by a pond, holding paintball guns, with trees and bushes in the background.
Abandoned, rusted yellow car splattered with paintball ammunition sitting in muddy grass next to a dilapidated structure with weathered wood and faded signs, in an open field with leafless trees and cloudy sky in the background.
Weathered plywood paintball battlefield structures standing in a muddy field with puddles, overcast sky, and sparse trees in the background.
Tree in a wooded area with paintball field structures and barriers behind it at sunset
A weathered, black wooden defensive structure with two cut-out windows, situated on a paintball field on dirt ground, surrounded by green trees.
Young boy outdoors dressed as a paintball player, holding a paintball gun, with yellow paint on his face and black muddy pants, standing on grassy terrain with trees and overcast sky in the background.
Concrete wall with graffiti of a face on a grassy field.
A small, plywood, paintball field structure covered in exploded paint with a square window and an open door, surrounded by green grass and trees, with a stack of rusty metal barrels nearby.
A young man in paintball gear standing in a wooded area, holding a paintball marker and spray-painted mask.
Three young men in paintball gear and tactical gear standing in a narrow, unfinished concrete hallway, facing the camera.
A defensive paintball field structure splattered with ammunition set in a green, overgrown outdoor area.
A young woman with shoulder-length brown hair holding a paintball gun, standing outdoors near a body of water with trees, grass, and tents or RVs in the background.
Old, weathered plywood paintball structures with faded paint in a grassy lot, some with signs like "Auto Doctors," under a cloudy sky.
A paintball shooting range with multiple weathered mannequins, some female and some male, positioned among rusted traffic and street signs inside a corrugated metal enclosure.
A young woman in outdoor tactical gear, including a helmet with goggles, camouflage scarf, tactical pants, and gloves, stands in a forest clearing holding a paintball gun with a hopper and CO2 canister.
A weathered gray plywood wall with graffiti of a smiling face, featuring spiral eyes and a curved mouth, set in an outdoor area with a grassy ground and a blue sky with clouds overhead.
Two young men holding paintball guns standing in a wooded area, wearing dark blue overalls and caps, with paint splatters on their clothes.
A paintball field mock depot featuring rusty metal barrels stacked under a weathered wooden shelter with a Canadian flag hanging, alongside an abandoned car, near a body of water and trees.