Can I Escape What I Love?

Maggie Stemp-Turner

A dynamic photographic collage composed of approximately twenty overlapping and fragmented images, characterized by visible film grain and varied color tones. Subjects include multiple portraits of individuals, often with double exposures or color overlays, some featuring a red-haired person with a light blue headband. Other scenes depict a cluttered artist's studio, a workshop with tools, a corkboard adorned with masks and papers, snowy evergreen forests, and a snow-covered street with cars and a pedestrian. The composition also includes darker, more abstract images, theatrical performances with costumed figures, and subtle light leaks and color gradients, creating a dreamlike and multifaceted visual narrative.

Can I Escape What I Love? is a narrative documentary centred on the experience of creative passion becoming overwhelming. Through the artist Rachel Van Staalduinen, a theatre student specialising in production and design, the work documents their process of creating costumes and props for the York University PlayGround production of Gas Station. The project uses double-exposed 35mm film to deepen the emotional tension between devotion and exhaustion — the feeling Rachel describes as loving something so much it consumes you.

The resulting roll print invites a non-linear experience, allowing the narrative to unfold across the full scope of the creative process rather than following a fixed sequence. In doing so, the work deepens the story of how passion can both drive and consume an individual.

    About The Artist

    A minimalist graphic with a grainy gradient background shifting from dark blue-gray to light sky blue. The word 'Inhale' is in bold, solid white sans-serif text, and below it, 'Exhale' is in white sans-serif text that fades to transparent from top to bottom.

    Maggie Stemp-Turner

    Maggie Stemp-Turner is a Toronto-based photographer who finds her greatest creative freedom shooting on film. A former hockey player, her passion has been focused on contributing to the growth of women's sports through her documentary work. Lately, taking interest in performing arts and theatre, drawn to the technical parallels between the both industries, creating a unique vision to her work.

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