Hunter (studio recreation) by Notman
Toronto. One popular focus by old photo collectors is to collect photos produced by a major studio or photographer. An example is collecting Notman photographs. Identifying the subject/cut line for Notman photos is made easier by the studio’s detailed record keeping now held for the most part by the McCord museum in Montreal.
To celebrate our 25th Anniversary, editor Bob Lansdale reproduced an illustrated article titled “William Notman’s …hunting photographs, 1866” which originally appeared in The Archivist, No. 118, the magazine of the National Archives of Canada. It is reproduced with the permission of the National Archives of Canada.
The author, Dr Joan M. Schwartz, of Queens University has been both a member and a speaker at the PHSC. On January 2009 her topic, “Photographic Sleuthing: Archival Stories and Academic Tales” provided a huge amount of information about professor Schwartz and her research.
For the Notman article, she begins, “In 1866, Montreal photographer William Notman produced a series of hunting and trapping scenes in a second floor “operating room” of his Bleury Street studio. Best known are the Cariboo [sic] Hunting and Moose Hunting series, parts of which were also published as Sports, Pastimes, and Pursuits of Canada Photographed from Nature.
“Hailed as wonderfully realistic and admirably effected, these commercially-produced images by Canada’s foremost professional photographer won awards at international exhibitions and attracted widespread attention. One image titled Chance Shot showing hunter and guide crouched in the snow, rifle at the ready, circulated to an international audience when it was published as a mounted photograph on the frontispiece of the May 1866 issue of The Philadelphia Photographer, North America’s premier photographic journal.
“Others, such as The Breakfast and The Death, found their way into the personal photograph albums compiled by individuals as souvenirs of colonial postings or military service. Notman’s suggestion that these hunting scenes were “photographed from Nature,” juxtaposed with the great lengths to which he went to recreate the outdoors in his studio, has tended to focus critical analysis of the Cariboo Hunting and Moose Hunting series on the question of realism and art.
“However, an archival exploration of historical circumstances, functional origins and documentary contexts reveals that these overtly manipulated, but naturalistically intended, studio photographs of hunting actively participated in shaping notions of place and identity in early modern Canada.” …
Members viewed the entirety of the article in the pdf version of issue 25-2 on the free members-only DVD/thumb drive. Joining the PHSC is inexpensive and easy. See “Membership” above (cheque) or at right (PayPal or plastic). Drop a line to Lilianne at member@phsc.ca if you have a membership question.
And come to our next 2025 event on October 19th – our famous fall fair. Details/poster are listed in PHSC News 25-7.
