When Daniel Dillon began shooting photographs for the Flin Flon Fire Department last year, his goal was to document the work done by first responders. That work is now the backbone of a new exhibition at Flin Flon’s NorVA Centre.
Dillon’s photographs form a new exhibition called “In the Line of Fire,” a documentary exhibit including shots of fire department members in the field.
A teacher at Many Faces Education Centre by trade and an acclaimed photographer, Dillon first crossed paths with fire chief Chad Cooper last year.
“He was saying that he needed somebody who could look after capturing images they could use for fire investigations, for historical records, social media and publications. I said that would be something that I’d love to do,” Dillon said.
Since then, Dillon has joined firefighters at practices, drills and even at incidents in the field, including structure fires and traffic accidents.
In photographing the activities of the fire department, Dillon hopes to show everything that goes into fighting a blaze.
“For me, it’s to document as close to the beginning until the end, whether it’s for investigations or for historical records so they have a whole plethora of images they can choose from,” he said.
“At points during a fire, I will see moments arise that will be more intense for capturing images, whether a window blows out and there’s a lot of smoke and flames coming out of it, I know that would produce a good image. It also shows what was happening during the fire and where the fire spread through the structure. Basically, it’s a documentary; the whole piece rather than one specific image that tells the whole story.”
Formerly a volunteer firefighter in Nova Scotia, Dillon once had goals of being a professional and undergoing advanced training. He said his know-how of fire situations has paid dividends in his work.
“It goes back a long way and I have a bit of experience in it,” said Dillon.
“For me, having a knowledge of it, it’s kind of like a dance. I know what the firefighters are going to be doing and where they’re going to be going, therefore I can position myself into the locations that are going to capture the most information for the images. I think that’s from previous experience of five years of being a volunteer firefighter in Nova Scotia.”
As for the members of the department, the reaction has been positive.
“It’s brought up the morale of the apartment,” said Cooper. “A lot of guys, after our training, they’ll go through and look at the photos. He just captures all the candid moments between the members and how they interact with each other. You just feel that sense of brotherhood and camaraderie between firefighters.”
The exhibition will be featured at the NorVA Centre until the end of June. All proceeds from the event will go toward the Manitoba Firefighters Burn Fund and Camp Phoenix, a camp for youth ages six to 17 from Manitoba, northwestern Ontario and Nunavut who have suffered burn injuries.
