Cat Marchese

Cat is an award-winning photographer who reignites nuggets of history with her camera. Citybonez™, her collection of historical high resolution brick images paying photographic homage to Toronto's building blocks manufactured by local brickyards, is now followed up with her latest works. Going back a few centuries, WOOD(Z) pays historical photographic reverence to the Canadian Logging Industry. Cat's images are a collection of branded logs and log ends. Wood was a primary material used in construction until it was banned from being the primary material for construction, following a fire that razed Toronto's downtown buildings in 1904. Bylaws were changed and bricks then became a popular and safer solution.

A qualified diving team finds and pulls up from the bottoms of rivers, felled trees and sunken timber from a century and a half of log drives. The log ends are marked with historical timber company branding, which identify lumber companies during the logging days of the 1800s - 1900s such as J.R. Booth (known as the King of Lumber),  McLachlin Brothers (Arnprior, Ontario), and E.B. Eddy Company (now a division of Domtar Inc). 

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These beautiful centuries old wood chunks were initially left behind. Each piece tells a unique story, one that connects us to forests, nature and history.