by Jim Campbell, Duntroon: OBP Director/VP
“Driving out of town,
as landscapes blur by,
fond memories
of childhood visits to a family farm:
the barn, the land, the grass,
the space,
timeless slowness,
come together in my mind.
A quiet stillness
lingers.”
This past Thursday evening I was captivated by a winning photograph at the Blue Mountain Foundation of the Arts Juried Photo Show (as you might expect, anything with a barn in it grabs my attention), and unbeknownst to me at the time, the words above were the on the mind of the photographer, which in hindsight offers some understanding of the photo’s serenity and composition.
Twenty-four hours later, as coincidence would have it, during the start of the Creemore Arts Fest I had the pleasure of meeting the writer of these words, award-winning photographer Peter Dušek of the Hockley Valley, and of viewing more of his stunning portfolio at his eponymous gallery within the village. I would describe Peter’s photography as a great celebration of simplicity, even though this simplicity may result at times in delightful visual richness. This combination of the simple and the complex is well illustrated in one of his collections which is currently the subject of a feature exhibition at the Museum of Dufferin, affectionately know in these parts as the “MOD”. For those who are not familiar with this museum, located between Shelburne and Alliston, I believe you will appreciate its embrace of the rural setting and its strong references to farmyard architecture.
From MOD’s Instagram page on the exhibit:
Discover the quiet beauty of rural architecture reimagined through the lens of local photographer Peter Dušek. In this striking exhibition, barns, silos, and country buildings become bold studies in colour, shape, and balance—capturing the deep connection between structure, land, and sky.
From the MOD website:
In “Field Work”, Peter Dušek captures the quiet poetry and essence of rural architecture—barns, silos, and country buildings—through a series of photographs that reimagine these structures as part of a broader dialogue with the land and sky they occupy. By dividing each image into distinct colour fields and shapes, Peter distills the complexity of these landscapes into bold, elemental planes, revealing the subtle and striking ways in which buildings and their environments intersect. Each photograph becomes a study in balance, a testament to how the land and its structures shape one another over time.
I hope you enjoy these few photographic excerpts from Peter’s “barn portfolio”, and, if you can, check out the Museum of Dufferin and Peter’s exhibition “Field Work” which is up until the end of January 2026.
All photographs credited and copyrighted to Peter Dušek. Thank you Peter for permitting us to share them with the followers of Ontario Barn Preservation.
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