From the late 1800s till the early 1900s, a quartzite stone was mined in the Niagara River gorge and carved into souvenirs, which were sold to tourists as ‘petrified mist’. Some believed the so-called Niagara spar possessed magical powers.

Niagara Falls is the 13th most photographed tourist destination on the globe and the Canadian side is known as The Honeymoon Capital of the World. People come to vacation, marry, gamble or commit suicide here, and the Marilyn Monroe film Niagara was shot there in 1953. It also happens to be my partner’s hometown.

Like petrified mist, photographs condense the sense of a place into a physical object. This series seeks to portray Niagara Falls not simply as a breath-taking wonder but as a complex borderland coloured by attraction, illusion and myth, where traces of real life often remain in the shadows, unnoticed and unseen.