James was born in Wales and immigrated to Canada in 1966. In the 1980s, James photographed European gardens, villas, and countryside using a panoramic camera, producing black and white landscape images such as the series European Gardens and Villas, 1984. His exhibitions and publications also feature panoramic French and Italian landscapes that explore idyllic nature. With Robert Burley and Lee Friedlander, he contributed to Viewing Olmsted, 1989–96, edited by Phyllis Lambert and commissioned by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, which explored the North American parks designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. In 1989 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and in later work he explored the human impact on various landscapes, including in a series on asbestos mining in Quebec.

Image: Geoffrey James, Saint-Cloud, 1984, silver print on paper, image: 8.5 x 26.5 cm; on mount: 13.5 x 31.1 cm, Winnipeg Art Gallery.

For further reading, see:

James, Geoffrey. La Campagna Romana. Montreal: Éditions Galerie R. Blouin, 1990.

James, Geoffrey, and Monique Mosser. Morbid Symptoms: Arcadia and the French Revolution. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1986.

Lambert, Phyllis, ed. Viewing Olmsted: Photographs by Robert Burley, Lee Friedlander and Geoffrey James. Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1996.

Pauli, Lori, and Geoffrey James. Utopia/dystopia: Geoffrey James. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2008.

Jerome, the first professional Gwich’in photographer in the Northwest Territories, documented traditional activities, events, daily life, and work at fish camps and in various N.W.T. communities in the 1960s and 1970s. He was born in Aklavik and raised at a Gwich’in camp called “Big Rock,” near the Mackenzie River, before he was taken to Grollier Hall, a residential school in Inuvik. As a young man, Jerome trained as a welder, but he soon pursued photography, working briefly for the Native Press newspaper in 1977 before taking up freelance photography. At the time of his tragic death by house fire at the age of thirty, he was working on the series Portraits and History of the Dene Elders in the Mackenzie Valley. Around nine thousand negatives were recovered from his home and later donated to the NWT Archives, where they received extensive conservation treatment. The Archives partnered with the Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute to host a series of identification workshops in 2008–09, through which over thirty-five hundred images were catalogued and made accessible online.

Image: James Jerome, Northern Games: A crowd is gathered in front of Sir Alexander Mackenzie School in Inuvik during the 1979 Northern Games. Several women and children sit in the foreground, some are eating., 1979, graphic material, NWT Archives, Yellowknife.

For further reading, see:

Carrie, Jason. “Archives of the North, by the North, for the North: The Meaning, Value, and Challenges of Creating, Keeping and Running Archives in the Canadian Territories.” Master’s thesis, University of Manitoba / University of Winnipeg, 2020.

“Native Press Hires Two Natives.” Native Press, April 1, 1977, 8.

NWT Archives, James Jerome fonds. gnwt.accesstomemory.org/n-1987-017.

Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. “1979 James (Jim) Jerome.” Northwest Territories Timeline. Accessed May 11, 2023. www.nwttimeline.ca/1975/1979Jerome.htm.

True North FM. “In Pictures: 1970s NWT through the Eyes of James Jerome.” January 7, 2016. www.mytruenorthnow.com/10744/in-pictures-1970s-nwt-through-the-eyes-of-james-jerome/.

Seesequasis, Paul. “Traditional Ways.” In Canadian Geographic: Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada, 2018. indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/traditional-ways/.

Johnston was a photographer in his Tlingit community of Teslin, Yukon, from approximately 1910 to 1950. He taught himself photography, including developing his own film and making prints. He bought a car and advocated for roads to be built so he and others could more freely traverse the region. As this image of children playing “funeral” testifies, Johnston’s photographs do not shy away from the harsh realities of life, but in naming the children and having them pose he also indicates his position as a deeply embedded member of his community.

In 1978, Yukon artist Jim Robb purchased many of Johnston’s photographs and sold them to the Yukon Archives. The collection and Johnston’s unique story inspired the George Johnston Museum of Tlingit history in the Yukon and an NFB film, Picturing a People: George Johnston, Tlingit Photographer, 1997. Starting in the 1980s, younger photographers and curators began to write about and exhibit his work as they built a more accessible history of Indigenous photography. Today, the George Johnston Fonds at the Yukon Archives consist of over one hundred photographs, including negatives and prints. His images can also be found in the Julie Cruikshank Fonds and the Their Own Yukon Project collection.

Image: George Johnston, Five children playing funeral, c.1930–50, black and white nitrate negative, 9.1 x 14.9 cm, Yukon Archives, Whitehorse.

For further reading, see:

Farrell Racette, Sherry. “Returning Fire, Pointing the Canon: Aboriginal Photography as Resistance.” In The Cultural Work of Photography in Canada, edited by Carol Payne and Andrea Kunard, 74–75. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011.

Geddes, Carol, dir. Picturing a People: George Johnston, Tlingit Photographer, video, 50 minutes. Montreal: National Film Board of Canada, 1997. www.nfb.ca/film/picturing_a_people_george_johnston/.

George Johnston Fonds. Yukon: Department of Tourism and Culture, Archival Descriptions. Last modified March 2, 2020. yukon.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/ARC/DESC/SISN%204479?SESSIONSEARCH.

Hill, Richard, and Sandra Semchuk. Silver Drum: Five Native Photographers; George Johnston, Dorothy Chocolate, Richard Hill, Murray McKenzie, Jolene Rickard. Hamilton: Native Indian / Inuit Photographers’ Association / NIIPA, 1986.

Strathman, Nicole Dawn. Through a Native Lens: American Indian Photography. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020.