Spoiler alert: This book closes with a conversation between photographer, Geoffrey James, and former Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, Peter Galassi who concludes, “Canadian Photographs does not pull its punches, but neither does it settle for easy judgements. That is a big part of why I think it is your best book to date.”
Winner of two of the most prestigious awards in the arts in Canada, the Gershon Iskowitz Prize and the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, James has garnered international acclaim through exhibitions and his work is found in major collections.
There are also more than a dozen books and monographs of his photography, from elegant images of Italian gardens, majestic heritage trees, and the classic streetscapes of Paris to the building of the border fence near Tijuana and the emptying of the Kingston Penitentiary.
A few of the photographs included in the book, Canadian Photographs, can be seen at the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto, and currently at TrépanierBaer Gallery in Calgary until March 8 as part of the Exposure Photography Festival.
But the book offers a different kind of experience. In it, James takes advantage of the book format with intelligence, offering visually stunning images that can be apprehended with a slow, thoughtful, personal read, and re-read.
Geoffrey James, “Near Falconbridge, ON,” 2012, colour pigment print on Baryta paper (courtesy of TrepanierBaer Gallery and the artist, photo by Carolina Vasquez-Lazo)
He sequenced the 96 colour images carefully. Themes emerge as the images capture moments in the changing conditions of rural and urban life across Canada from 2010 through 2019. A well-written narrative, there is nuance in this collection, and what might seem at first to be matter of fact, reveals a sensitive and haunting honesty.
This book marks a departure from James’ earlier work, in part because he began to use a handheld digital camera in 2010. The new process opened possibilities — for example, being able to take images from moving trains. Whereas the images in his earlier books are black and white (with a few colour images in Inside Kingston Penitentiary 1835-2013), here, he demonstrates a great eye for colour.
Add to that the fact that, as a senior, he has discovered he enjoys a certain anonymity on the street. That might make it easier to choose to take more images with people. The reader might also notice in Canadian Photographs, James’ cunning inclusion of words, from signs to ads, and his own cameo appearances, once as a reflection and later as a shadow. New ways of working, but as always, a master of photography at work. ■
OTHER ART BOOK REVIEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
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- Bookmark: Outsider Art of Canada
- Jack Bush Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonné
- Bookmark: New Book about Bertram Brooker
- Bookmark: All the Beauty in the World
- The Role of Textiles in Relation to Art
- The Quest for the Meaning of Art
- Quick Pick - J.E.H. MacDonald: Up Close
- Mary Pratt: A Love Affair with Vision
- The Role of Textiles in Relation to Art
- Surreal Spaces: The Art and Life of Leonora Carrington
- Early Days: Indigenous Art from the McMichael
- Bianca Bosker: The Quest for the Meaning of Art
PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories here or sign up for our free biweekly newsletter.
