Canada, before Facebook
Posted on 09. Jul, 2010 by jessekg in Art, Canada
“This image is striking (and also sad) because, while it was taken in 1966, it’s still current,” Cronenberg told the Post (parentheses mine)
Toro Magazine, that once great magazine that went the way of online only and has since become and pretty good site, purchased some 24,000 photographs of Canada from the New York Times. These photos, ranging from 1910 to 1984, show Canada growing up through the eyes of it’s much bigger, much uglier, much meaner older brother/sister/neighbouring country.
I would love to know how much Toro’s founder, Christopher Bratty, paid for these (is this why it’s no longer around. So Bratty could scrapbook Canada?), but an even more pertinent question is, what do you do with 24,000 photos of Canada taken over the last 100 years?
If you’re Toro, you hire budding photographer and daughter of a famed Canadian director Caitlin Cronenberg to curate it down to just 24 (I would love to be all bloggy and write some giant diatribe on nepotism not being fair and shit, but seriously, it’s way to hot so who cares, I need to get back to my unglamorous job that doesn’t involve curating anything), and show it during the Toronto International Film Festival. Creatively named RED: A Preview Exhibition of the NY Times Canadian Photo Archive, Cronenberg promises “The exhibition won’t be photos simply hanging on a wall. Working with set builders, lighting designers and prop artists, I’m creating a cinematic-inspired installation with wall-size photographs backlit with light boxes and framed with salvaged wood. The show will have a very dramatic flair, which is fitting considering the opening coincides with the Toronto International Film Festival.”
You can get a sneak peak of the photos on their website, or you can check out the photo of the day. The exhibit does sound fairly promising, but seriously, what the hell are they going to do with 24,000 photos afterwards?
