"A Photographic Prairie Trilogy" by Kyler Zeleny
14 October 2025
Free admission: registration required
Kyler Zeleny’s “Prairie Trilogy” documents the evolving history of Western Canada’s rural communities through three books: Out West (2014), Crown Ditch and the Prairie Castle (2020), and Bury Me in the Back Forty (2024). His work uniquely blends evocative landscapes, candid environmental portraits, and found photography to tell timeless stories of resilience, heritage, and local identity.
The trilogy captures both collective and personal memories from small towns and rural spaces, exploring challenges faced by communities shaped by urbanization, fading architecture, and generational transitions. Zeleny’s photography and storytelling provide a vital visual testimony of prairie life, encouraging deeper understanding of the region’s people, places, and histories.
About the presenter:
Kyler Zeleny (b. 1988) is a Canadian photographer, educator, and author of Out West (2014), Found Polaroids (2017), Crown Ditch & The Prairie Castle (2020), and Bury Me in the Back Forty (2024).
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the 伊人直播, a master’s in Photography and Urban Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a PhD from the joint Communication & Culture program at Toronto Metropolitan University and York University. His work has been exhibited internationally in twelve countries and featured in numerous publications, including The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, The Washington Post, VICE, Maclean’s, and The Independent. He is currently a sessional instructor at Grant MacEwan.