My work as an artist has been a mesh of exploring the documentary aspect of photography while investigating ideas surrounding notions of the archetype and storytelling. This project is an attempt to document my experiences as a treeplanter while at the same time describe a certain type of personality or sub-culture. My experience as a field worker has given me an opportunity to explore my own will power to perservere in an uncomfortable environment as well as allowed me to relate to the themes of meditation, frustration, accomplishment, and acceptance that comes in this environment. For many young Canadians this job represents a certain rite of passage and culminates as a graduation to the adult world. The word “cull” is described in Webster’s dictionary as “To select, To collect: gather.” Within the tree planting world it is a description of those trees found at the end of a bag-up which are rendered implantable. This word also reflects my process as an artist collecting the memories of my tree planting experience. My artistic practice revolves around the theory that the materials used to make a piece inform a large part of how that piece translates to the audience. Through layering negatives and printing on alternate materials such as cloth or wood, I feel more able stretch the photographic medium outside its traditional form. With this series of work , I wanted to examine this experience from all sides: the physical, the psychological and the emotional. By using a variety of medium I hoped to create a sort of museum of this experience and in turn, give a broader narrative of this time in my life. The work Culls is an installation of photography, artifacts, writing and clothing which attempts to document my years as a tree planter in the Central Interior of British Columbia. The selected images are from a larger collection of photographs that were taken over the seven summers I spent in the bush.