Helios Taranteau Exhibit

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Robert

May 19 2017 in Toronto – four photographers

Toronto.  Chris McCallan sent me an email a few weeks back on April 12th that he was planning an exhibit of photographs here in Toronto featuring himself and other local photographers.

PHSC member Harold Staats sent me a followup email yesterday that the exhibit has come together. It will be held in east end Toronto at the Paint Cabin, 723 Gerrard St East (just  east of De Grassi) from 6 – 11 pm on May 18th, 2017.

Come out and support your local photographers! Continue reading →

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Really, really fast camera

Posted on May 1, 2017 by Robert

Fast film camera technique at Lund University in Sweden

Toronto. My friend and fellow PHSC member Russ Forfar enjoys scientific articles. Yesterday, Sunday morning, he sent me a link to Science Daily. In the Science Daily article the experiments of Sweden’s Lund University are described. Scientists there are using a clever light pulsing and algorithm technique to capture extremely fast chemistry and physics experiments.

Read the article and have a look at their YouTube presentation too.

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Kodak Professional DCS History

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Robert

Kodak Professional DCS Camera

Toronto. Nowadays we recognize the early digital cameras as collectibles.  The DSLR has become a staple of the professional. With smart phones everyone has a camera – still and video – constantly at hand.

A few days ago my friend John Linsky suggested this link to the Digital Camera System history. The very name Kodak is intimately entwined in the early history of digital cameras. The earliest digital technology mated a Kodak sensor with Canon and later Nikon SLR cameras. These cameras were useful to  military and newspaper photographers alike.

For the first time the newspaper photographer could send his images by wire without taking a slow detour to a darkroom. The low resolution digital image vs. a higher resolution film print was not an issue since newspaper images by their very nature were printed as low resolution half tones. Time was of the essence as the lawyers say.

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Photography Show – Arts & Letters Club Sunday

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Robert

History of Contemporary Chinese Photography – A&L Club, 14 Elm St, Toronto

Toronto. Les Jones sent me an email on Thursday offering an invitation to view the Photography Show at the Arts & Letters Club this Sunday, April 30th from 1 – 4 pm. The show will run from April 30th through to May 26th, 2017.

The show features a history of Contemporary Chinese Photography.

The club is located at 14 Elm street in downtown Toronto – home of our image show last fall.

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The AGO’s very first photgraph

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Robert

Charlotte Bronte portrait – cased Ambrotype c1855

Toronto. We seldom think of the AGO as a source of photographic information and yet this fine arts institution has over 60,000 photographs in its eclectic collection. In the AGO’s AGOinside newsletter there is an announcement of a new AGO Gallery  dedicated to photography.

Under Bronte’s Ambrotype is this cut-line, “British Photographer, Charlotte Brontë at age 34, from an 1850 rendering by George Richmond (British, 1809–1896), around 1855. Ambrotype: sixth plate; leather case, embossed velvet pad. Gift of Ronald Hewat, Kaslo, BC, 1925, 782. Overall (glass): 6.4 x 5 cm (2 1/2 x 1 15/16 in.) Frame: 7.2 x 5.9 cm (2 13/16 x 2 5/16 in.)”

Note that a few members of the PHSC are also members or staff of the AGO. As to the AGOinsider, you can sign up to get this pdf format newsletter free!

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EDWIN HAYNES : REDISCOVERED TORONTO PHOTOGRAPHER

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Robert

Edwin Haynes – Child shovelling coal. An unlikely photo in this age of gas furnaces and helicopter parents…

NEXT TORONTO MEETING: Wed, May 17, 2017
Lizz Hodgson – Edwin Haynes: Rediscovered Toronto Photographer

Lizz Hodgson is the great-great-grandniece of Edwin Haynes. She will present on the rediscovery of the Edwardian images of Edwin Haynes. On May 29th last year, staff reporter for the Toronto Star, Chris Reynolds wrote an illustrated column on this captivating photographer from a century ago titled, “100-year-old images from Toronto photographer rediscovered“.

Scotiabank reported our talk for this year’s CONTACT. I posted this item last year just after the Star column. Lizz provides more details on Haynes in her Blogspot and on the web at this site.

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

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Talk about Agnes Chamberlin at Lambton House May 11, 2017

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Robert

A CDV portrait of Agnes Chamberlin

Toronto. Agnes Chamberlin was born in Coburg. She was the first Canadian-born child of famous author Susanna Moodie. Agnes was twice married and gave birth to nine children. Her legacy is wildflower books like Canadian Wild Flowers and Studies of Plant Life. These books have roots in Lambton Mills (now part of Toronto in the west end).

Joy Cohnstaedt sent me an email on the 23rd noting that, “Heritage Talk by Madeleine McDowell on one woman’s life, Agnes Dunbar Moodie Fitzgibbon Chamberlin (1833-1913), in early Canada.

“Born in Cobourg, Agnes Dunbar Moodie was the first Canadian child of author Susanna Moodie and her husband. She was twice married, experiencing life in many places and levels of society. Agnes Dunbar Moodie is buried in St James Cemetery, Toronto.

“Doors open at 7:00pm. Refreshments. Free will offering appreciated. ”

The talk will be on May 11, 2017 from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm at:
Lambton House
4066 Old Dundas Street
York, M6S 2R6

 

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What to do with your old 35mm slides

Posted on April 25, 2017 by Robert

Girl with a Quilt. A March 1982 Kodachrome slide.

Toronto. With the growth of digital, we all must  have boxes and boxes of old slides and a slide projector or two kicking around the house. In this Kodachome slide, I snapped my youngest daughter  at a quilt show her mother and I were participating in as merchants back in March of 1982.

I took a few colour photos with my Leica, including this whimsical snap of Cher wrapped in a quilt. Today the slides and its siblings rest in my desk. A carousel projector and its trays hold up a stack of stationery in a corner of my den.

George Dunbar sent me an email last Tuesday which had a NY Times link to James Barron  showing his article “Donated Slides From the Met Get a Second Life” from the newspaper’s Grace Notes column. In their case, NYC had a “Materials for the Arts” program. The program benefitted in free slides from the Metropolitan Museum of  Art  (The MET). The museum was busy converting its donated slide inventory into a database via a scanner. Once scanned, the original slides were gladly donated to the project to be reused and viewed once again.

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Canadian Historical Photographs

Posted on April 24, 2017 by Robert

Photo c1890 from Mahone Bay Museum

Toronto. George Dunbar dropped me an email the first of the week.

George says, “A wonderful collection of historical photographs can be viewed at the Mahone Bay Museum (Nova Scotia) and web site”

And it is indeed a wonderful site. I first heard the name Mahone Bay over 50 yeas ago. My friend George Ball had built a 14 foot outboard using a Mahone Bay hull. He and some friends spent a few winter evenings at a Toronto High School taking a woodworking class so they could have access to a large area and the needed power tools for the transom, gunnels, and front deck construction. In the 1970s my family and I vacationed in the maritimes and visited the very picturesque Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia.

Have a look at the Museum’s web site and enjoy the photographs which may include your ancestors… My ancestors on my mother’s side have Nova Scotian roots.

 

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Sit, Pose, Snap. – Brisbane Portrait Photography 1850 – 1950

Posted on April 23, 2017 by Robert

Portrait from Marcel Safier Collection, Australia

Toronto. PHSC member Marcel Safier of Australia has a  part of his collection on exhibit at the Museum of Brisbane. The exhibit, called “Sit, Pose, Snap” covers the Brisbane portraits business over the century of 1850 – 1950. The exhibit runs from March 24th through July 30th of this year. Marcel noted, “… the exhibition contains less than 10% of my Brisbane portrait photos and less than 1% of my whole portrait collection!”.

The Museum quotes, “Sit. Pose. Snap. Brisbane Portrait Photography 1850 – 1950 explores the phenomenon of studio portrait photography in Brisbane, and shows how the process of capturing and sharing a portrait evolved from the formal studio sittings of the 19th century through to candid and relaxed photographs of the mid-20th century.

“With the introduction of commercial photography in the mid 1850s, dozens of photographic studios popped up in and around Brisbane capitalising on this popular new technology. Interest in this novel sensation was high, and profitable – with photographers increasingly savvy when it came to selling their service and products. Continue reading →

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