On a Halifax Pier: Man documents daily walks along waterfront after dog’s death

Photographer Shane Paris captures images for his collection On A Halifax Pier.

When Shane Paris lost his beloved pet during the COVID-19 pandemic, he found comfort in walking along the Halifax Waterfront, and now he’s sharing his experiences with others through a photography project.

“Anybody who’s lost a pet, you know what it’s like the next day — you’re lost, right, so I decided to go for a walk,” recalls Paris. “Came out to the top of the hill, somebody at Nova Scotia Power asked me, ‘Where’s your little friend?’ It’s the one question you don’t want.”

Paris became emotional when he explained he had lost his dog, Ryleigh, and turned around to hide the tears in his eyes. When he turned around, he saw a perfect rainbow arching over the waterfront.

“There was a rainbow that shot directly from the sands all the way over towards Waterfront Place, where I was living the time when we got her. So, it kind of told me I needed to keep walking, keep shooting, so it turned into five years of photos,” explains Paris.

His daily walks became a photography project — called On a Halifax Pier — with Paris posting photos of his favourite boardwalk moments for others to enjoy and find comfort in.

Paris gets up early every morning to walk the waterfront and capture pictures of the sunrise, even in the summer when the sun rises at 5 a.m.

“Sunrises down here, honestly some of the best in the world, but getting out here, getting up for sunrise, it starts the day,” he says.

“Now I can’t even imagine if I got up and don’t come out for a walk, I mean just like everybody, from a mental health perspective, physically and mentally, that’s why I shoot pretty much every day.”

Paris describes On a Halifax Pier as a “love letter” to the city and a “reminder to stop and breathe.” From the brightly-coloured Adirondack chairs to the crooked lampposts, Paris says he has taken tens of thousands of photos over the past five years, documenting the waterfront in “every mood and season.”

He also confirms the project title comes from Stan Rogers’s iconic song, “Barrett’s Privateers.”

“It’s a song about loss and endurance. That lyric stayed with me — because at one point, I was that broken man,” he says. “But I kept showing up. And eventually, the sun started rising again.”

He hopes his project will help those who are going through a tough time and also inspire people to get out and walk the Halifax Waterfront.

“There’s nothing better than coming for a walk on the waterfront … everybody should do it,” he says. “A lot of us miss the moments and you know, really, that’s what I find I’m doing down here, is capturing the moments.”

Paris’ photos are available for purchase online.

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