This year our fair is on Sunday May 26, 2013 and features an exhibit of the works of the late George Hunter.

Come out and enjoy the day while you pick up bargains in used goodies for collectors and users alike. Click here or on the icon at left to see and print the poster in full size.

From Left: Cover 13-1, Changing of the guard Clint Hryhorijiw and Mark Singer,Chelsea Jeffery at our Malton CONTACT show, The PHSC team at Photo Network Expo, A 19th century Indian photo from a book co-authored by our September speaker, Dr. Deepali Dewan of the ROM. Bottom: PHSC’s first Image Show held in the Legion Hall 101, Toronto (Long Branch), Ontario

In it, we learn about LIFT (our May program), the Spring Fair, a report on the April Business meeting and Movie Night by yours truly, a brief memorial to the late George Hunter (whose selected work will be on display at the Spring Fair), a report by Ashley Cook, curator of our first Image Show, photo essays on the participation of the PHSC at the first Photo Network Expo, and opening night at Chelsea Jeffery’s “Moments from Canadian Photographic History”, PHSC supported CONTACT display at the Malton Gallery, 2nd floor, Arrivals area in Toronto International Airport (photographs for the Expo and the Malton show courtesy of PHSC’s very own Robert Lansdale).

A new book on the work of 19th century Indian photographer Raja Deen Dayal is reviewed by John Morden and Sonja Pushchak. Co-author of the book, ROM’s Dr. Deepali Dewan will be our September speaker). The newsletter wraps up with posters, and the ever popular columns From the Net, Current Events, and Want Ads.

From Left: Cover of 39-1, The mysterious Flotmar camera, A night at the HH0fF archives, sol Lagault,George Hunter and his main tools – camera and airplane.  Bottom is a First World War panorama found on display at the 101 Legion Hall.

This issue reports on the mysterious Flotmar camera discovered by John Kantymir. Two monthly Toronto meetings are reviewed – the Tintype Studio presentation and the visit to the archives of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Etobicoke. We have the second of the three part series on erotic Stanhopes by Ryerson student sol Legault. The late George Hunter is remembered. All this plus the usual columns and inserts. We will have an exhibition of George Hunter’s works at this month’s spring fair. Join now to see this wonderful issue! Just click the “Pay Now” button at the top of the right sidebar.

Kodak Building 9
Mount Denis

TORONTO, April 21, 2013.  My dad lived in Weston in the late 20s and early 30s when he first married my mom. He and his older brother ran an auto wreckers/garage there at the time. A few years later dad moved north to join two other brothers in the same business in Allandale, where I grew up.

I was born in Long Branch on 40th street and all my baby photographs were taken with a Kodak Six-20 folder made in Kodak Heights. Dad used to talk about driving by Kodak and taking various roads like Scarlett Road. He often mentioned both Mount Denis and Weston in his stories to me. My wife’s cousin Don Peneycad, was the personnel manager at Kodak Heights, and one of my neighbours was the resident electrician.

This all came back when George Dunbar sent me a message about the sad demise of Kodak Heights. Like the much larger Kodak facilities in Rochester, the buildings have been destroyed as film and Kodak’s ubiquitous cameras lost out to electronic companies and digital cameras built into cheap cell phones. Back in 2009, when Kodak announced it would soon stop making Kodachrome colour slide film, that staple of professionals since the late 1930s, Rick McGinnis wrote and illustrated the story of the death of Kodak Heights on the blogTO.com site. His article can be see by clicking here.

The Kodak Canada records were donated to Ryerson University. Bob Burley of that institution has produced the book ”Disappearance of Darkness: Photography at the End of the Analog Era” which quickly sold out its 25,000 strong first printing and recently went into a second printing. The book includes images of the Kodak Heights campus.

Our first meeting under President Mark Singer will feature Chris Kennedy, Executive Director of the “Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto”. Come out and hear Chris talk on this exciting organization for film and digital filmmakers. Note: Congratulations to Chris who recently became a father. Chris feels he will be able to meet with us but LIFT has an alternative  speaker in the wings just in case.

The public is welcome.  Go to our Programs page for times and directions.

Here, Kodak, Kodak

TORONTO April 30, 2013. “Dat your Kodak?”, asked Quebecois farmer Plouffe who lived on his farm across the road from my friend Yves Tessier up in rural La Chute Quebec. It was not a Kodak that I had with me that day in the 1960s, but to the older generation in La Belle Province the words “Kodak” and “camera” are synonymous.

In the Globe this morning was this headline: “Kodak hands over camera-film business to creditors”.  This transaction with the Kodak Pension Plan in the UK was announced yesterday. It is said to include the Document Imaging line which was already under tentative consideration by Brother Industries. The deal with KPP helps to offset the 2.8 billion dollars Kodak is said to owe its British pensioners.

Once Kodak emerges from bankruptcy, it will be a company with one dimension – that of printing equipment and services to other companies. My Kodak printer/scanner is an  orphan as Kodak discontinued desktop printing last September.  Digital patents have been sold off to Apple, Google, Microsoft and others in a done deal.

So, will Kodak, like the Cheshire cat of Alice in Wonderland fame, fade until only the grin remains… ?

TORONTO May 2, 2013.

Refreshments provided. Please park in the Terminal 1 Garage in the “Daily Park” section. Parking vouchers provided for guests arriving by car.
RSVP to Lee Petrie (lee.petrie@gtaa.com) by the end of the day, Monday April 29.

Hunter by Lansdale

Mississauga, April 26, 2013. Carol and I attended the memorial for George Hunter last Saturday along with a large number of other friends and family. A slide show gave attendees a look back over George and his accomplishments. This show is now up on his web site which can be viewed here.

The society was represented by past and present members including Bob Lansdale, who photographed the event, Rick Bell, Harry Joy, Tom Bochsler, Brock Silversides and myself. Eulogies were initiated by Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion, Brock Silversides of U of T, and well known photographer and author Tom Bochsler. The photo shown here is the last one taken by Bob Lansdale at George’s last annual barbecue held each year at his home in Mississauga.

We are back at the MEMORIAL HALL VENUE.  Come and join in the friendly chatter and tables of interesting items.

The public is welcome. Go to our Programs page for times and directions.

George remarked that the ability to correct a print was vastly better with digital technology than in the old darkroom days of dodge and burn on so called analogue prints. A sampling of George’s black & white photographs were put on display a few years later at the Mississauga City Hall gallery. It was hard to believe those dramatic photographs were all digital prints from negatives dating back to the 1940s. We last saw George when he spoke to the society during its February 2012 meeting at the AGO where he expanded on the Canadian Industrial photographs then on display.

A memorial will be held THIS SATURDAY April 20th, at 11 am. The venue is the Scott Funeral Home at 420 Dundas St E in Mississauga. See you there.