- Title:
- Northern exposures; photographic and filmic representations of the Canadian North, 1920-1945.
- Creator:
- Geller, Peter G.
- Date Created:
- 1995
- Degree Awarded:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Subjects:
- not yet catalogued
- Geographical Focus:
- Canada
- Supporting Materials:
- n/a
- Description:
- More than a geographical space, the “North" has played a significant role in the Canadian imagination. While various aspects of the idea of North have been delineated in both popular and scholarly discourse, the following study seeks to illuminate the visual aspects of northem imagery, through an analysis of the photographic and filmic practice of "the Crown, the Company, and the Church,” the three major southern institutions involved in the arctic and sub-arctic. In the first half of the twentieth century, as the north was further incorporated into the Canadian nation, visual representations of the region were widely circulated in official publications and presented in film shows and lantemn slide lectures. It is argued that photographic ways of seeing performed a vital and active part in the federal government’s attempts to assert a measure of control over its northern territories. In particular, the representational strategies of the Northwest Territories and Yukon Branch are investigated. At the same time, the Anglican Church of Canada was engaged in the visual construction of the region; as pictured by Archibald Lang Fleming, first Bishop of the Arctic, the North was in a Twilight stage, poised on the movement from primitive paganism to Christian civiiization. The Hudson’s Bay Company, as the major corporate power in the region, also contributed to the growing archive of northern images, in the process presenting itself as a responsibie, imperially-minded and benevolent agent of northern development.
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- Geller, Peter G.. 1995. "Northern exposures; photographic and filmic representations of the Canadian North, 1920-1945.", Department of History, Carleton University
- Link to this page:
- https://cuhistory.github.io/grads/items/hist_224.html
Rights
- Rights:
- Copyright the author, all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.