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by Mike Steinhauer
In a recent publication, The Official Picture, Carol Payne brings to light a long-neglected collection of photographs depicting Canada and Canadian life from the 1940s to the 1960s.
Long-time National Film Board (NFB) photographer Chris Lund was responsible for a significant portion of the thousands of photographs taken for the NFB’s Still Photography Division—a collection now divided between Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (CMCP).
Payne suggests that Lund’s seductive and technically sophisticated images contributed to the Canadian nation building exercise and that the beautiful images—photographs of an “undeniable sameness”—were accepted almost unquestionably. As such, she argues, the highly choreographed and carefully crafted images produced a form of “banal nationalism,” repeatedly depicting what was commonplace and thus producing “a visual model of normative Canadian identity.”
Lund’s photographs presented here, while not directly discussed in The Official Picture, further Payne’s argument. A group of youthful and fashionable people is touring the National Capital Region. Their activities—hiking along the Rideau River, playing table tennis at Britannia Yacht Club and canoeing at Dow’s Lake—reflect the lifestyle of a new Ottawa, a capital city already freed of what the Gréber Plan had identified as congested roads, unattractive industrial zones and unsanitary housing.
This group of images is part of a broader series that became Canada's photo stock of sorts—a collection of official pictures that “often appeared without a photo credit or with minimal identification of the photographer.” The various regions and activities performed in Canada were photographed and the Division compiled a stock of some 250,000 photographs including a series on skiing in the Laurentians, camping in the Maritimes, fishing in Newfoundland, (shirtless men) gardening in Niagara and shopping in Montreal.
The photographs posted here were taken by Chris Lund in 1952. One of the images, Man, woman and young boy at a motor court in Eastview, was photographed at the Reliance Motor Court (later the Butler Motor Motel; now the Econo Lodge Downtown East) in Vanier.
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Two travellers - one man and one woman - consult a road map before the trans-Canada highway sign at the intersection of highways 15 and 17, Ottawa, Ontario (4292880) |
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Man, woman and young boy visit Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario (4292877) |
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Man, woman and young boy at a motor court in Eastview, Ontario (4292882) |
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Man fishing in the Rideau Canal near Ottawa, woman seated next to him (4292847) |
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One man and one woman starting out on a fishing expedition on Dow's Lake, Ottawa, Ontario (4292851) |
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Man and woman canoeing on Dow's Lake, Ottawa, Ontario(4292848) |
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Two women perched on rocks at Britannia Yacht Club, Ottawa, Ontario (4292867) |
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Two men and two women play ping-pong at Britannia Yacht Club, Ottawa, Ontario (4292869) |
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One man and three women at Britannia Yacht Club, Ottawa, Ontario(4292864) |
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Two women at Britannia Yacht Club, Ottawa, Ontario (4292865) |
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Two travellers - one man and one woman - consult a road map before the trans-Canada highway sign at the intersection of Ontario highways 15 and 17 near Ottawa (4292856) |
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Two cyclists - one man and one woman - consult a road map on the bank of the Ottawa River in Rockcliffe Park Village, Ontario (4292857) |
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Man and woman on fishing trip to Lac Deschênes, near Ottawa; woman takes man's picture (4292858) |
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Man taking picture of woman and small boy at an Ottawamotor court near intersection of Ontario highways 15 and 17 (4292846) |
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One male and one female hiker stop to view scene from a height overlooking the Ottawa River in Rockcliffe Park Village, Ontario (4292854) |
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Picnicking in Brébeuf Park on the Ottawa River near Hull, Québec (4292852) |
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Two male and two female Canadians greet guests arriving by air at Uplands Airport, Ottawa, Ontario (4292860) |
Sources:
Gréber, Jacques. The 1950 Plan For The National Capital Region: General Report. Ottawa: National Capital Planning Service, 1948.
Payne, Carol. The Official Picture: The National Film Board of Canada’s Still Photography Division and the Image of Canada, 1941-1971. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013.
Photo Credits:
Library and Archives Canada; Copyright: Government of Canada; Photographer: Lund, Chris, 1923-1983.
Gréber, Jacques. The 1950 Plan For The National Capital Region: General Report. Ottawa: National Capital Planning Service, 1948.
Payne, Carol. The Official Picture: The National Film Board of Canada’s Still Photography Division and the Image of Canada, 1941-1971. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013.
Photo Credits:
Library and Archives Canada; Copyright: Government of Canada; Photographer: Lund, Chris, 1923-1983.