"INTERSTELLAR" While mountains and parks often remain public, access is still required to be granted: permits for guiding, lotteries for backcountry campgrounds, a paid pass to spend the night. Although this permission-based system supports conservation, it still can make nature feel gated (literally and figuratively). By contrast, the stars, the cosmos... they have no keys. There's no permit required to view light that has traveled an interstellar distance to meet our retinas. The aurora is permissionless; charged particles from the sun travel for hours and days before they pour into our atmosphere in a multicolour dance for all who can look up to see them. I've spent countless nights in the mountains and I had never seen the sky move as it did here. A spectacular, keyless portal, for all to enter and experience. // Location: Banff National Park Year: 2024 Photographed on Canon 5D Mark IV, 16mm, f/2.8. Single 25 second exposure; no stacking or compositing. Post-processed in Adobe Lightroom. 4480x6720 pixels. // I, Alex Mackenzie, declare that if this work is selected and acquired through the 6529 Network Museum Keys and Gates accession program, I will release it under CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication), and warrant that I have full rights to make that release.