1293
such as Vancouver’s John Vanderpant organized open
and invitational photography salons. The fi rst Canadian
camera club exhibit was staged by the Toronto Camera
Club in 1891. Prior to this, industrial or agricultural
fairs at the provincial or local level were the primary
venue for the competitive exhibition of photographs by
professionals and amateurs. Possibly the earliest such
instance in Canada was the display of daguerreotypes at
the Nova Scotia Industrial Exhibition in October 1854.
Among the fi rst Canadian art exhibitions which included
photography was one hosted by the Art Association of
Montreal (now the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts) in
- Works by William Notman and Alexander Hen-
derson were on display that year and by the latter in - The Royal Canadian Academy of Art (established
- did not begin to recognize photography as an art
form until at least the 1960s when it awarded Ottawa’s
Yosuf Karsh its RCA Medal (1964). Some of the found-
ers of the RCA, however, utilized photography in their
landscape painting.
All Canadian societies and groups who sponsored ex-
hibitions saw steady growth and interest in photography
in the fi rst decade of the 20th century as the Pictorialism
tradition blossomed. As noted by H. Snowden Ward, co-
editor of Photograms of the Year, based upon his 1899
visit to a Toronto Camera Club meeting:
The Canadian amateurs ... feel their somewhat isolated
position ... but by means of careful study and discussion
of the articles and reproductions in the journals, as well
as by very frank, breezy criticisms at their own lantern-
slide evenings, they are doing all that lies in their power
to remedy these defi ciencies.
David MattisonSee also: Notman, William & Sons; Topley, William
James; Livernois, Jules-Isaïe and Jules-Ernest; and
Claudet, Antoine-François-Jean.
Further Reading
Greenhill, Ralph, and Birrell, Andrew, Canadian Photography,
1839–1920, Toronto: Coach House Press, 1979.
Koltun, Lilly, (ed.), Private Realms of Light: Amateur Pho-
tography in Canada, 1839–1940, Markham: Fitzhenry &
Whiteside, 1984.
Lansdale, Robert, “Canadian Photo Magazines, 100 Years Ago,”
Photographic Canadiana, vol. 18, no. 3 (1992): 4–10.
Lessard, Michel, Histoire de la photographie au Québec, 3rd ed.,
Montreal: Université du Québec, 1987.
Lessard, Michel, The Livernois Photographers, Quebec: Musée
du Québec, 1987.
Mattison, David, Camera Workers: The British Columbia, Alaska
& Yukon Photographic Directory, 1858–1950, electronic
edition, http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/100/200/300/david_mat-
tison/camera_workers/index.html.
Oliver, Andrew, The First Hundred Years: An Historical Portrait
of the Toronto Camera Club, Gormley: Aurora Nature on
behalf of the Toronto Camera Club, 1988.
Photographic Canadiana, various issues.
“Photography in Canada.” The Archivist, vol. 16, no. 3 (1989):
2–15.
Reid, Dennis, “Our Own Country Canada”: Being An Account
of the National Aspirations of the Principal Landscape Art-
ists in Montreal and Toronto, 1860–1890, Ottawa: National
Gallery of Canada, 1979.
Schwartz, Joan M. (guest ed.), “Canadian Photography.” History
of Photography, vol. 20, no. 2 (1996).
Seifried, Christopher, (ed.), Guide to Canadian Photographic
Archives, Ottawa: Public Archives Canada, 1984.
Sprange, Walter, The Blue Book for Amateur Photographers,
Massachusetts: W. Sprange, 1893, 1894 and 1895.
Thomas, Ann W., and Strong, David Calvin, “The Exhibition
of Photography in Canada: An Overview,” Muse, vol 6, no.
4 (1989), 74–78.
Selected Canadian Web Sites With Descriptions of and Digitized
19th Century Historical Photographs:
Archives of Ontario, Toronto, http://www.archives.gov.on.ca;
British Columbia Archives, Victoria, http://www.bcarchives.
gov.bc.ca; Canadian Archival Information Network (CAIN),
Web: http://www.cain-rcia.ca; Images Canada, http://www.
imagescanada.ca
National Archives of Canada, ArchiviaNet: On-line Research
Tool, Photographs Database, Web: http://www.archives.ca;
National Gallery of Canada, CyberMuse, http://cybermuse.
gallery.ca/ng; Notman Photographic Archives, McCord
Museum, McGill University, Web: http://www.mccord-mu-
seum.qc.ca; Nova Scotia Archives & Records Management,
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm; Prince Edward Island, Public
Archives and Records Offi ce, On-Line Exhibits, http://www.
edu.pe.ca/paro/exhibits/default.aspSOCIETIES, GROUPS, AND
EXHIBITIONS IN FRANCE
The birth of the French photographic institution fol-
lowed the development of the scientifi c and historical
academies in the country. The same cultural phenom-
enon took place in all European countries as well as in
their colonial territories.
The photographic societies were associations whose
purpose was to ameliorate photography and diffuse it
to the majority.
During the 19th century, “in science, if the lonely ge-
nius make the most important discoveries, the scientifi c
societies (...) make them understandable, propagate and
improve them.” (“Si c’est le seul génie qui fait dans les
sciences les grandes découvertes, ce sont les sociétés
savantes (...) qui éclaircissent les découvertes, qui les
répandent et les perfectionnent,” Dictionnaire de la
langue française, Littré, 1863–1871)
This century has been considered as the century of
technical discoveries. Diffused by specialized newspa-
pers, Expositions universelles and academies, sciences
became a new subject of interest, the beginning of their
democratization.
The photographic academies were very different
by their members’ type, their research fi eld, even their
philosophy. The technical societies were the most im-
portant by the number of their members because they