Released in 2023, Old Caves is about a man who lives alone in the woods. In the dead of winter, he spends his days either methodically searching the woods, or in his cabin planning the next search. If the books we see in the cabin are anything to go by, he's looking for Sasquatch.
These scenes of a solitary life are mixed with scenes of the man and his wife, making a life together in the cabin. Those scenes are set during summer, tending a garden, gathering wood, but also one spent snuggled together in bed or watching the sun set.
Landry leaves the wife's absence a mystery for most of the book, although the man carries a packet of letters, allowing our imaginations to run. Ultimately, it seems that solitude helps people see what they want in life. Some want to be around others, and go to civilization, life on the outskirts making it too difficult to ignore the dangers of the unknown. Others withdraw deeper into isolation, seeking something else.
Landry illustrates everything in black-and-white, effectively able to show the differences in setting with where the dark shadows lie. In the flashbacks, darkness is trapped beneath the forest canopy or a broad sun hat, and the white is all blinding sunlight. Darkness, the unknown, is kept at a distance by shared experiences. In the present, the darkness is the night sky crowding around a tiny campfire, or the scrawny lines of the tree trunks amid snow drifts. The man's solitude has allowed the unknown to envelop him - literally, in the scene where arms of shadow encircle him as he sleeps in his tent - and that only encourages him to go deeper.
I posted a longer review, with a few more images, August of last year.
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