We feel, it’s about time that these photographers of HISTORICAL note were acknowledged, and their names become known to every Canadian photo-nerd!
Here are but a few names we think you should know, and some QUICK facts as to WHY...
HANNAH MAYNARD IS KNOWN FOR:
Running her own studio business in Victoria, BC. “Mrs. R. Maynard, Photographic Artist and Dealer in All Kinds of Photographic Materials.”
In 1897, she became Victoria’s official police photographer. Anyone arrested was taken to her studio for a mug shot.
Raised FIVE kids.
Technically, her work is superior. Her signature works include photomontages, multiple exposures, and photosculptures.
Maynard used mirrors and partial glass plate negative exposures to create unique narratives about herself and surreal tributes to the deceased.
MATTIE GUNTERMAN IS KNOWN FOR:
being a Pioneer woman who literally walked over 1000km from Seattle to Beaton (BC), with her husband, dogs and son. She had Tuberculosis, and they looked to live in a dryer climate.
Gunterman used a 4×5 inch glass plate camera. Her photographs show some of the difficulties of pioneer life and the joys of leisure time. She used a long cable-release to include herself in images.
She photographed the men at work in the Nettie L. Mine, including the deceased miners as they were being shipped back to their Nova Scotia homes for burial.
GERALDINE MOODIE IS KNOWN FOR:
Creating photographs of Inuit and Indigenous families
While hubby John Douglas (J.D.) Moodie held a role the North West Mounted Police (NWMP), they traveled to the North West Territories. Her husband attempted to acquire official photographer status for her, but he request was denied, and the role given to a man. However, it was her images that were sent with reports, including correspondence to Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier.
As early as 1895, Moodie copyrighted her negatives, as her images were often used out of context.
She ran studios in Battleford and Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, and in Medicine Hat, Alberta. She also raised five children.
GLADYS REEVES IS KNOWN FOR:
Accidentally becoming a photographer through her starting role as the receptionist at Ernest Brown’s Edmonton photo studio.
Brown and Reeves were interested in pioneer life. In the 1930s, they created the "Birth of the West" photo series for use in public schools.
Brown willed his photographs and his collection to the Province of Alberta. Reeves was hired to organize and document its contents of over 10,000 photographs. Reeves’s photographs are in the Brown collection.
A 2009 Edmonton Fringe Festival performance, The Unmarried Wife, was based on the story of Brown and Reeves.
ALSO, check out artist/ archivist and Edmonton's Historian Laureate Marlena Wyman's Pecha Kucha presentation VIDEO featuring the GLADYS REEVES story - HERE.
ELSIE HOLLOWAY IS KNOWN FOR:
Her business in St. John’s, Newfoundland, for 40 years.
In 1914, she photographed hundreds of enlisted men in the Newfoundland Regiment.
Career highlights included photographing Amelia Earhart in 1932 at Harbour Grace and the 1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth royal tour.
ALSO - Check out the HERITAGE Newfoundland and Labrador VIDEO: 'With the Camera: The Life of Elsie Holloway' - HERE.
Photographer + researcher LAURA JONES helped us put this info together. Find out why she is a trailblazer herself - HERE.
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