The Faraway Nearby: Photographs of Canada from The New York Times Photo Archive

September 13 – December 10, 2017
Main Gallery, The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre)
Curators: Gerald McMaster and Denise Birkhofer

Featuring photographs of Canadian subject matter from The New York Times Photo Archive, The Faraway Nearby examines a century of Canada’s history and its representation in the leading American newspaper of record. Taking an expansive view of the many stories that have shaped our national experience, the exhibition highlights images of major political events and conflicts, iconic landscapes across the nation, sports heroes, candid reportage on the lives of diverse communities, and portraits of notable Canadians. The exhibition draws from the more than 21,000 photographs preserved in The New York Times Photo Archive, known henceforth as The Rudolph P. Bratty Family Collection. This extraordinary new promised gift, made by Toronto entrepreneur Chris Bratty in honour of Canada 150, joins the renowned Black Star Collection to further establish The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) as a key international resource for the study of press photography.

Event(s):

Opening Party
Wednesday, September 13
6:00–8:00 PM

Special Tour
With curators Gerald McMaster and Denise Birkhofer
Wednesday, September 27
6:00 PM

Curators in Conversation
Gerald McMaster and Jesse Wente
Wednesday, November 15
7:00 PM
School of Image Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University)
122 Bond Street, room IMA-307

Exhibition Tours
Daily 2:30 PM

All events take place at The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre), unless otherwise noted

Exhibition sponsors:

Media sponsor:

Fig. 1

Unknown photographer for The Associated Press, [Princess Elizabeth at Niagara Falls speaking with Ernest Hawkins, mayor of the Ontario community], October 14, 1951, gelatin silver print. The Rudolph P. Bratty Family Collection, The Image Centre

Fig. 2

Unknown photographer, [Buffy Sainte-Marie sings on the Johnny Cash Show], ca. 1969, gelatin silver print. The Rudolph P. Bratty Family Collection, The Image Centre

Fig. 3

Unknown photographer for The Associated Press, [Reporters gather around Prime Minister Churchill (left), President Roosevelt (center) and Premier Mackenzie King of Canada, as the leaders hold their final press conference, Quebec], September 16, 1944, gelatin silver print. The Rudolph P. Bratty Family Collection, The Image Centre

Fig. 4

Unknown photographer, [Canadian Women's Olympic Speed skating team, Lake Placid, New York], February 1932, gelatin silver print. The Rudolph P. Bratty Family Collection, The Image Centre

Fig. 5

Photographer unknown, [Trudeaumania, Toronto, Ontario], 1968, gelatin silver print. The Rudolph P. Bratty Family Collection, The Image Centre

Fig. 6

Gar Lunney, [Corporal W.W. MacLeod of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police gives directions to tourists in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta], ca. 1958, gelatin silver print. The Rudolph P. Bratty Family Collection, The Image Centre

Curator Bios

Gerald McMaster

Gerald McMaster, OC (PhD, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Theory, and Interpretation, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) is a curator, artist, author, and professor of Indigenous Visual Culture and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University, Toronto, and co-curator of The Faraway Nearby. He has worked at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (Ottawa), the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC), and the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto). In 2012, he was an artistic director of the 18th Biennale of Sydney, and in 1995 he was Canadian commissioner to the Venice Biennale.

Denise Birkhofer

Denise Birkhofer (PhD, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, United States) is the Collections Curator and Research Centre Manager at The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre), and co-curator of The Faraway Nearby. Her scholarship addresses such topics as Mexican street photography, contemporary Latin American art, and female artists. In her previous capacity as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, Ohio, she organized exhibitions on the work of Hugo Brehme, Judit Reigl, Brett Weston, and Fred Wilson, among others.

Exhibition Catalogue

The Faraway Nearby: Photographs of Canada from The New York Times Photo Archive

Editors: Denise Birkhofer, Gerald McMaster
Contributors: Justine Kohleal, Gaëlle Morel, Paul Roth, Alana West

On the occasion of Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017, The Faraway Nearby presents a century of Canadian history through photographs. The book will take readers on a visual journey through photographs ranging from breaking news to portraiture, depicting many of the key events and personalities that helped to define Canada in the twentieth century.

Taking an expansive view of many of the diverse histories that have constituted Canadian life, The Faraway Nearby highlights images of major political events and conflicts, the Canadian role in wartime, iconic landscapes across the nation, hockey and other sports heroes, and candid reportage on the lives of everyday Canadians. Also featured prominently are images of Indigenous peoples, immigrant communities, notable international figures on official visits to Canada, as well as portraits of such iconic figures as Margaret Atwood, Glenn Gould, Marshall McLuhan, Mary Pickford and Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

The publication draws from an archive of more than 21,000 photographs of Canadian subject matter, a promised gift to The Image Centre (formerly Ryerson Image Centre) from the collection of Toronto-based entrepreneur Chris Bratty.

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Installation Shots