Author Archives: Robert

Swann Galleries Photo Auction

Posted on October 2, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. Now the NAFTA heat and rhetoric have lessened, maybe it’s time to visit the Big Apple again. Our friends at Swann Galleries are conducting their periodic photograph auction beginning Thursday, October  18, 2018 at 1:00 pm. Have a look-see … Continue reading →

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women photographers

Posted on October 1, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. With all the current action here (our federal government) and in the states (#metoo movement), it seemed appropriate to look at women photographers. Georege Dunbar sourced out this collection housed in the National Gallery of Australia. The picture he … Continue reading →

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Edward Burtynsky – Anthropocene

Posted on September 30, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. I first learned about Ed Burtynsky and his large camera prints of how we are affecting the world when I saw Jennifer Baichwal’s  Manufactured Landscapes at TIFF in 2006. I did a post on Ed a decade later in … Continue reading →

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a crying shame

Posted on September 29, 2018 by Robert

Toronto.  Mid last century photo studios used lots of ideas to increase traffic as our program director, Yvette Bessels, suggested in  a recent Toronto meeting program. My friend, pro-photographer, and fellow PHSC member, George Dunbar, suggested one great option that … Continue reading →

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McLuhan and the PHSC

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. An oft repeated axiom is that you are never more than six degrees removed from someone famous. As time has pased, I have always admired the accuracy of this simple statement, which brings me to Marshall McLuhan and his … Continue reading →

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the wonders of Polaroid

Posted on September 27, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. My thanks to George Dunbar for sending me a note on the Guardian article by Christian Sinbaldi and Mee-Lai Stone (Picture Editor, Culture) titled Strictly analogue: Polaroid’s past, present and future – a photo essay. The Polaroid company has … Continue reading →

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National Geographic

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. What does a magazine and your favourite telephone company have in common? Alexander Graham Bell, that’s what, In 1880, Bell founded the Bell Telephone Company  in the states and here in Toronto followed by the Bell System which was … Continue reading →

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southern fried

Posted on September 25, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. Last Saturday’s Globe had an article by Rachel Wine on an exhibition at the Stephen Bulger Gallery of the photographs of the American south taken in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s by Rosalind Fox Solomon called Liberty Theatre. You … Continue reading →

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ever seen a Gowlandflex camera?

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. My thanks to George Dunbar for getting my attention on this series of cameras (only about 600 made – too small for McKeown’s 2001-2002 camera guide). The late Peter Gowland was a famous Hollywood photographer. His studio was well … Continue reading →

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Where were you on August 9th, 1945?

Posted on September 23, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. I had just turned 8 at the time. The second world war in Europe was over that May and we had celebrated V-E day. In early August, we saw a newspaper photo of the first atomic bomb dropped on … Continue reading →

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