Roger Eberhard and James Nizam | Tumulus at 25books

What sounds like the plot of an adventure movie is actually a part of Canadian history. 40 years ago, an entrepreneur leased an island on Pitt Lake in British Columbia from an Indian tribe, the Katzie. He built vacation condos and some visitors decided to settle down permanently on the island. When the Katzie Indians didn't prolong the lease contract, which they had signed under extremely unfavorable conditions, Pitt Lake's new residents had to leave the property hastily. Today, the island is mostly covered in vast patches of undergrowth, with the remains of a handful of abandoned vacation homes in between farns, trees and scrubs.

This unique mesh of vegetation and architecture proved an ideal theme for the Swiss photograph Roger Eberhard and the Canadian artist James Nizam. They captured the ruins on photographs by cutting their way across the island together. “We knew about these vacant houses and ruins and then just carried our cameras through the thick forest to photograph every one of them. It was a discovery tour” says Eberhard.

The result? A photo book with the name “Tumulus” that shows the island in its current state. Tumulus is a term used in archaeology describing a burial mound and directly alluding to the photos depicting heaps of planks, beams and wedges that are completely overgrown by nature. “In the end, it's nature reclaiming its land and burying history in the process,” says Eberhard while describing his photos.

This background knowledge can be of great avail when trying to interpret Nizam and Eberhard's project. The staff at 25books will be able to tell you even more about it – the store has two oversized photographs from the book on display until March 14. (ihe)