A Full Catalogue and Analysis of Photographs and Photogravures by Robert J. Flaherty at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Zulay Jau Ting Chang

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14644017

Abstract

This thesis is based on a photographic collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario that comprise fifty-one photographs and photogravures by the filmmaker and photographer, Robert J. Flaherty (1884-1951). The objects consist of three groups: twenty-three photographs and nineteen photogravures of northern Arctic scenes and portraits; two presently unattributed photographs of northern scenes that are associated with Flaherty's work of the north; and seven portraits of Canadian artists Frances Loring (1887-1968) and Florence Wyle (1881-1968) taken in Toronto, Ontario. All the photographs were taken between 1910 and 1921; the photogravures were published in 1922, in portfolios titled, Camera Studies of the Far North. This thesis has five components: a biography of Flaherty, literature review of what is presently known about Flaherty and his photography, a brief description of Flaherty's photographs in public institutions, a full catalogue of the fifty-one objects, which is fully illustrated and includes comparative illustrations of related objects examined at the Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa, and an analysis of three photographs from each of the Flaherty groupings at AGO, primarily based on the research from the catalogue.

Highlights

In 1922, the film Nanook ofthe North was released and photographs taken by Flaherty over the course of his trips were reproduced as photogravures, published and sold in portfolios titled Camera Studies ofthe Far North, to promote the film. 3
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has fifty-one photographic works by Flaherty in its collection. These include forty-four works taken in the north; twenty-three gelatin silver photographs, nineteen photogravures and two gelatin silver photographs whose maker is unknown, but that are associated with the Flaherty collection at AGO
Date derives from Independent researcher, Janet Dewan's research for the Flaherty works at AGO in 1994

Summary

Introduction

Photographs - one that contains gelatin silver photographs that were produced under extreme sub-Arctic climate; photogravures that were produced for turning a profit as a result of the film, Nanook ofthe North, and the cyanotype portraits of Loring and Wyle, which are very different from the photographs Flaherty took of the Inuit. There are two appendices, the illustrated set of eighteen photogravures published in the portfolio Camera Studies ofthe North, and a list of works in the Flaherty collection at the AGO that were originally donated in an album.

Methodology and Research Process Methodology

12. References

C ATA LO GUE I I

Conclusion