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AN ATLANTIC ALBUM: PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE ATLANTIC PROVINCES, BEFORE 1920.

Robson, Scott and Shelagh Mackenzie.

Halifax, Nimbus, c1985. 168pp, paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-920852-40-8. CIP

Grades 7 and up
Reviewed by Catherine R. Cox

Volume 14 Number 1
1986 January


The interesting story of the gathering of the photographs for this collection is told in the introduction by Mary Sparling, the Director of the Art Gallery at Mount Saint Vincent University. It all started with the 1980 National Film Board film, Fixed in Time: A Victorian Album, directed by Shelagh Mackenzie. Under the auspices of the Nova Scotia Museum (Scott Robson was Curator of Historic Buildings and Furnishings) the Notman prints on which the film was based became a travelling exhibit through the Atlantic provinces. Other photographs were added as the exhibit visited various communities. The collection in this book is the result.

The pictures, dating from 1870 to just before 1920, were taken by professional photographers residing in Halifax, Fredericton, St. John's, Charlottetown, and other Maritime cities and towns. Every part of the Atlantic region is not included for practical reasons. The book begins with a brief history of photography in the Atlantic provinces that includes the development of the process and the story of the individual photographers. The works are arranged thematically under such headings as: "Activities," "People," "Places," "Studio Portraits," etc. Each photograph is identified and annotated. The annotations are informative, but also tend to be a bit off-hand. The book ends with biographical notes on the photographers, and a bibliography. All the pictures are black-and-white, good quality reproductions. This book might serve a curricular need in social studies, or in the study of photography. It is also a worthwhile leisure purchase.


Catherine R. Cox, Moncton H.S., Moncton, N.B.
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