Cole Barash, When the Wind Blows North

Begun following the passing of his father, When the Wind Blows North originated as a personal act of retracing wilderness routes his father once traveled. Over the following five years, the project gradually expanded beyond its personal origins into an exploration of how photographs, landscapes, and family histories continue to shape one another across time. Made across the American West and Northeast, the photographs consider landscape not simply as a setting, but as something lived within. The work moves between landscapes, intimate observations, and silver gelatin prints from his father's archive, bringing photographs made decades apart into dialogue with one another. Rather than reconstructing the past, the sequence allows multiple generations of seeing to coexist within the same landscape. Rather than following a linear narrative, When the Wind Blows North unfolds through recurring forms, shifts in scale, and visual echoes. Meaning emerges gradually through repetition, sequencing, and the relationships formed between images, inviting a slower way of looking while reflecting the ways memory shifts, accumulates, and is continually reinterpreted over time. In keeping with Barash's late father's lifelong dedication to wilderness exploration, a portion of proceeds from the publication will benefit Big City Mountaineers, a nonprofit organization providing wilderness mentoring expeditions for young people from under-resourced communities.