During the Second World War, Kryn worked in the Ondergedoken Camera (underground camera) movement secretly photographing German abuses in the Netherlands. Kryn and Tess met in Paris in 1950 when Kryn was the first Dutch photographer invited to join Magnum, the prestigious Paris-based press agency, and Tess was working as a darkroom technician and as a caption writer for Henri Cartier-Bresson. Kryn’s relationship with Magnum degraded in the wake of political fallout from a celebrated series produced during the two weeks he spent with the National Liberation Army of Algeria in 1957 documenting their battle against French colonial forces. Tess and Kryn moved to Toronto in 1959. Tess documented the lively Toronto art scene of the 1960s. Kryn worked as a freelance photojournalist on assignments across Canada and internationally during the 1960s and 1970s, and collaborated with the National Film Board’s Still Photography Division, producing a lauded series on Hutterite communities in the West. In addition to making her own photographs, Tess had a paid contract with Star Weekly to print her husband’s photographs.

Image: Tess Boudreau, Rita Letendre, early 1960s, gelatin silver print, 23.7 x 34.8 cm, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.

For further reading, see:

Carey, Brian, and Louise Guay. Kryn Taconis, Photojournalist. Ottawa: National Archives of Canada, 1989, 50.

Close, Susan. “The Hidden Camera of Kryn Taconis (Photojournalist Was a Member of the Dutch Resistance Group Ondergedoken Camera).” Queen’s Quarterly 103, no. 1 (1996): 63.

Hostetler, John A., and Gertrude Enders Huntington. The Hutterites in North America. With photos by Kryn Taconis. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967.

Lachoskyj, Cat. “Under the Light: Preserving Tess Boudreau’s Negatives and Contact Sheets.” Art Gallery of Ontario, July 20, 2016. ago.ca/agoinsider/under-light-preserving-tess-boudreaus-negatives-and-contact-sheets.

Michael Torosian is a Toronto-based documentary photographer whose work explores portraiture and the human body. His series Toronto Suite, 1989, features portraits of artists represented by the Isaacs Gallery. Inspired by sixteenth-century northern Renaissance painter Hans Holbein (1497–1543), Torosian concentrated on conveying the character of his sitters, and his portrait of Michael Snow highlights that artist’s deep commitment to experimentation. Torosian is also the founder of Lumiere Press, a private publisher of limited-edition, hand-crafted books on photography launched in 1986. The Lumiere Press Archives are at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto.

Image: Michael Torosian, Michael Snow, 1988, printed 1989, gelatin silver print, toned, 35.3 x 27.6 cm; image: 32.3 x 24.6 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

For further reading, see:

Langford, Martha. “Michael Torosian,” 1043-45. Contemporary Photographers. Chicago: St. James Press, 1988.

Torosian, Michael, and Michael Bell. Anatomy: An Exhibition of Photographs by Michael Torosian. Ottawa: Carleton University Art Gallery, 1994.

Torosian, Michael, and Dennis R. Reid. Toronto Suite. Toronto: Lumiere Press, 1989.

Serge Tousignant is a multimedia artist based in Montreal, associated with the emergence of contemporary art in Quebec. From the early 1970s, his experimental work explored the relationship between sculpture and photography, particularly the way photographs contextualize and decontextualize objects in space. Tousignant was a founding member of the artist-run centre Véhicule and taught at the Université de Montréal.

Image: Serge Tousignant, Still-Life with Art Works, 1986, chromogenic prints (Ektacolor), 1: 135.4 x 103.7 cm; image: 122.3 x 97.5 cm; 2: 135.6 x 103.8 cm; image: 122.3 x 97.4 cm; 3: 135.5 x 103.8 cm; image: 122 x 97.1 cm; 4: 135.5 x 103.7 cm; image: 122.5 x 97.2 cm, CMCP Collection, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

For further reading, see:

Buquet, Jack, and Serge Tousignant. Light Stagings: Jack Buquet and Serge Tousignant. North Vancouver: Presentation House Gallery, 1987.

Dessureault, Pierre, and Serge Tousignant. Serge Tousignant : parcours photographique / phases in photography. Ottawa: Musée canadien de la photographie contemporaine, 1992.

Lou and younger brother Nat’s parents were Jewish Russian immigrants who moved their six children from Chicago to Toronto in 1900. The brothers operated Alexandra Studios on Queen Street West from 1910. They had a wildly successful and diverse practice, including news events and street photography, but became particularly well known for their sports photography. Nat was the official photographer of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Hockey Hall of Fame now houses many of these images in the Turofsky Collection.

Image: Lou and Nat Turofsky, Bill Barilko scores the Stanley-cup winning goal during overtime in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, April 21, 1951, Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto, Imperial Oil – Turofsky Collection.

For further reading, see:

Podnieks, Andrew. Portraits of the Game: Classic Photographs from the Turofsky Collection at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1997.

Turofsky, Louis J., and Nathan Turofsky. Sports Seen: Fifty Years of Camera Work. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1960.