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Niagara Falls, 1987
Where did the last quarter-century go? Did we make any progress toward our goals?
Sure, every birthday — that annual milestone — I ask a similar question, though not quite so broad. Advancing age and a longer view of my life in Canada make this July 1st particularly poignant.
Every citizen probably has their own memories, dreams and reflections (to quote Carl Jung) triggered by this national anniversary, but mine partly relates to the last major celebration in the country’s relatively young history: Canada’s 125th birthday.
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Twenty-five-years-ago, I was one of 79 photographers invited to contribute to the Faces of Canada project, organized by J. Marc Coté Pouliot and Urban Photographic Projects to mark that occasion, in 1992.
I’d seen one of the organization’s first juried shows, Toronto’s Toronto, during my sojourn there in the 80s, and took part in Vancouver’s Vancouver several years later, taking away second prize in the black and white category.
Faces of Canada produced a coffee table book and travelling show, sponsored by Ford Motor Company of Canada. The collection was donated to The Canadian Museum of Civilization (as it was then called … now Canadian Museum of History).
Several of my images were accepted into the collection. The image above, made at Niagara Falls in 1987, appeared in the book, which is hard to find now, aside from libraries and used book sellers (I found a few on Amazon) but I think it is an important body of work by some of Canada’s best photographers, and I’m proud to have had my photograph included between its covers.
The words of Governor General of the day Ramon John Hnatyshin, writing in the forward, are worth quoting.
“Photography freezes the moment in time, grants it an eternity that the ephemeral hour with all its spontaneity, beauty and passion will never know. For this reason it is the favoured art form of nostalgics who can look back upon a treasured photo and instantly summon a host of golden memories of days gone by. However, photography represents more than the tangible form of our reminiscences: it is an art that records the vagaries of time as well as the changing seasons of our lives, the permutations of our landscape, the redefinition of our national character. “
And so we reflect, 25-years-later, on where we have come and where we may be going. Certainly, some of the more acute problems we face as a nation seem intransigent and, worse, neglected by those who have promised to solve them.
Canada’s place in the world at this hour is indissolubly tied to that of the rest of the global Family of Man (title of another great photographic survey) and, in light of today’s environmental and political challenges, which other world-powers seem determined to abrogate, Canada’s reputation as a modern, forward-thinking nation rests on its obligation to to lead on the international stage.
At home, again we might listen to Hnatyshin’s view of the hope reflected in the faces of Canada.
“This year … let us take time to admire what is good in our country and enjoy its many positive aspects …. Let us move on to the next exciting chapter in Canada’s history, keeping in mind that there is more that unites us than divides us. Sir Wilfred Laurier said the 20th century belonged to Canada. If his prediction was not quite realized in the 1990s, could we not make this our objective for the next century?”