[1] Using a range of media, Lake explores topics including identity, beauty, gender and aging.

In these, Lake photographed herself as a wife and mother but later she wanted to make work to reverse that [citation needed].

In Montréal, Lake observed a marked power difference between genders, and she stated [citation needed] that women have a "glass ceiling" that led to her Choreographed Puppet photos.

In 1971, Lake became a co-founder (with twelve other artists) of the artist-run gallery Véhicule Art Inc.[3][14] Lake's work during this period was influenced by photo-based artists (including Les Levine) who were using the camera to represent an idea rather than documenting reality.

[8] From the mid-1980s until 1994, Lake ceased appearing as the subject of her work as she turned her attention to more direct forms of camera activism.

Among her notable works from this period is a series of photographs she created in collaboration with the Teme-Augama Anishnabai Band of Bear Island in Temagami, Ontario, to bring greater public awareness to their land claim.

"[17] In 2006, Roberta Smith of the New York Times compared her work to that of Cindy Sherman;[18] however, Thomas Micchelli, reviewing the feminist collection of the Vienna-based Verbund AG for Hyperallergic.com asserts that Lake was an influence on the latter in school.

While living in Montreal, Lake collaborated with a number of prominent theater and performance groups including the Judson Dance Theater to create performances exploring the interactions of human bodies and inanimate objects in the built environment.

This resulted in another survey exhibition curated by Gaëlle Morel at the Ryerson Image Center (RIC) in Toronto, as part of the 2017 Contact Photography Festival.

[26] She has been represented by Galerie Gilles Gheerbrant (1974–1977); Jared Sable Gallery (1976–1990), and Paul Petro Contemporary Art (1995 – 2012).

Lake is currently represented by Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto (2012 – ); Solway Jones Gallery, Los Angeles (2009 – ); Galerie Donald Browne, Montréal (2010 – ).