This fifth and final volume in the series dedicated to the National Gallery of Canada's immense photography collection documents the emergence of the medium as a recognized artistic discipline in Canada. The creation and growth of this unique collection reflects the enormous development in the practice, collection and display of photography over the latter half of the 20th century. Prior to this time, government institutions, commercial establishments and the legal, medical and journalism professions prized it for its documentary value. As a result, photographs rarely entered the collections of major institutions. This changed in the 1960s when art became more vigorous and dynamic. Photography especially articulated probing, contentious ideas of art, the artist, identity, sexuality and community. Art institutions, themselves undergoing radical transformation, acted as an interface between artist and public, and attempted to articulate movements and trends in art and photography. With dozens of full-page plates each accompanied by an individual abstract, the publication offers a scholarly essay providing artistic, cultural and historical context. Artists featured include those at the forefront of the changes in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as more contemporary figures who continue to push at the limits of the definition of the medium. They include Roy Arden, Raymonde April, Ed Burtnysky, Carol Condé and Karl Beveridge, Evergon, General Idea, Rodney Graham, Angela Grauerholz, Geoffrey James, Suzy Lake, Ken Lum, Gabor Szilasi, N.E. Thing Co, Ian Wallace and Jin-me Yoon.
The Cultural Work of Photography in Canada is an in-depth study on the use of photographic imagery in Canada from the late nineteenth century to the present. This volume of fourteen essays provides a thought-provoking discussion of the role photography has played in representing Canadian identities. In essays that draw on a diversity of photographic forms, from the snapshot and advertising image to works of photographic art, contributors present a variety of critical approaches to photography studies, examining themes ranging from photography's part in the formation of the geographic imaginary to Aboriginal self-identity and notions of citizenship. The volume explores the work of photographs as tools of self and collective expression while rejecting any claim to a definitive, singular telling of photography's history. Reflecting the rich interdisciplinarity of contemporary photography studies, The Cultural Work of Photography in Canada is essential reading for anyone interested in Canadian visual culture. Contributors include Sarah Bassnett (University of Western Ontario), Lynne Bell (University of Saskatchewan), Jill Delaney (Library and Archives Canada), Robert Evans (Carleton University), Sherry Farrell Racette (University of Manitoba), Blake Fitzpatrick (Ryerson University), Vincent Lavoie (Université du Québec à Montréal), John O'Brian (University of British Columbia), James Opp (Carleton University), Joan M. Schwartz (Queen's University), Sarah Stacy (Library and Archives Canada), Jeffrey Thomas (Ottawa), and Carol Williams (Trent University/University of Lethbridge).
House museums act as both sources and suppliers of history. Functioning first as private residences, they are then preserved as commemorative monuments and become living history museums offering theme-based tours led by period-costumed interpreters so that visitors might experience "what it felt like to live back then." In Family Ties, Andrea Terry considers the appeal and relevance of domesticated representations of Victorian material culture in a contemporary multicultural context. Through three case studies, Terry examines Victorian homes that have been repurposed as living history museums that host speculative performances of the past. The credibility of Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, William Lyon Mackenzie House in Toronto, and the Sir George-Étienne Cartier National Historic Site of Canada in Montreal, Terry argues, relies on the belief that architectural monuments and the objects they contain are evidence of the time, culture, nation, or people that produced them. Family Ties connects residential artifacts to performance by examining the Victorian Christmas programs offered annually at each site to demonstrate the complex nuances of living history. Through a detailed exploration of the relationship between heritage, living history, and memory, Family Ties illuminates the effects of institutional interpretations of the past that privilege nationalist myths.
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