Framing Canada

War and Conflict - The Documentary Impulse

Private John Lewis, 1st Royal Canadian Regiment, one of the survivors of a Chinese attack
Korea, October 13, 1952
Photographer: Paul E. Tomelin
PA-146992
Source

War and Conflict - The Documentary Impulse

Personnel of Le Regiment de la Chaudiere in landing craft Assault
Britain, May 9, 1944
Photographer: Lt. R.G. Arless
PA-131504
Source

War and Conflict - The Documentary Impulse

Attacking under smoke
France, June 1916
Photographer: Henry Edward Knobel
PA-000169
Source

War and Conflict - The Documentary Impulse

Wartime photographs are a testament to the terrifying, traumatizing misery of war. Strict censorship would have originally prevented most of these images from reaching the nation’s living rooms back home, but once in the archive, they faithfully record the activities of combat that most of us will hopefully never know.

Young Korean boy, tired from carrying rations to the Canadian front line
Korea, April 16, 1951
Photographer: Wilfred Harold Olsen
PA-151518
Source

War and Conflict - Shaping the Collective Memory

How do photographs help us to remember Canada’s contributions to the wars of our history? Do we only document the heroics of the victors, or do the photographs that make up our collective memory illustrate a larger, more complicated picture?

Louis Riel as a prisoner
Batoche, Saskatchewan, May 16, 1885
Photographer : James Peters
C-003450
Source

Photojournalism - The Pulse

Photojournalistic images illustrated the pulse and undercurrents of Canadian society. While some images captured Canadian triumphs, others were preoccupied with exposing social problems or marking the events that affected everyday life.

Mrs. Bluett and daughter Margaret wash dishes their first night in new home,
part of Toronto slum clearance project
Toronto, Ontario, ca. 1949
Photographer: Gilbert Alexander Milne
PA-128760
Source

See Mrs. Bluett and daughter Margaret wash dishes in their old home HERE

Photojournalism - The Pulse

Photojournalistic images illustrated the pulse and undercurrents of Canadian society. While some images captured Canadian triumphs, others were preoccupied with exposing social problems or marking the events that affected everyday life.

Mrs. Bluett and daughter Margaret wash dishes for the last time in their old Toronto home,
scheduled for slum clearance project
Toronto, Ontario, ca. 1949
Photographer: Gilbert Alexander Milne
PA-128761
Source

See Mrs. Bluett and daughter Margaret wash dishes in their new home HERE

Photojournalism - The Pulse

Photojournalistic images illustrated the pulse and undercurrents of Canadian society. While some images captured Canadian triumphs, others were preoccupied with exposing social problems or marking the events that affected everyday life.

Cecilia Butler, employee in a munitions plant during the Second World War
Toronto, December 1943
Photographer: unknown
e000761869
Source

Photojournalism - The Pulse

Photojournalistic images illustrated the pulse and undercurrents of Canadian society. While some images captured Canadian triumphs, others were preoccupied with exposing social problems or marking the events that affected everyday life.

Police raid on “Casa d’Italia”
Montréal, Quebec, June 10-11, 1940
Photographer: Montréal Gazette
PA-161458
Source

Photojournalism - The Pulse

Photojournalistic images illustrated the pulse and undercurrents of Canadian society. While some images captured Canadian triumphs, others were preoccupied with exposing social problems or marking the events that affected everyday life.

Dr. Norman Bethune performing surgery in an unused Buddhist temple
Central Hopei, China, spring 1939
Photographer: unknown
PA-114795
Source