Canada in the Frame describes this little-known collection and includes over 100 images from it. The author asks key questions about what it shows contemporary viewers of Canada and its photographic history, and about the peculiar view these photographs offer of a former part of the British Empire in a post-colonial age, viewed from the old ‘Heart of Empire’. Case studies are included on subjects such as urban centres, railroads and migration, which analyse the complex ways in which photographers approached their subjects, in the context of the relationship between Canada, the British Empire and photography.
Dr Philip Hatfield is Head of the Eccles Centre for American Studies and has held a range of curatorial posts at the British Library. He worked as Curator for Canadian and Caribbean Collections at the Library from 2010 and holds a doctorate in the history of Canadian photography, based on the Library’s Colonial Copyright Photography Collection. He has also curated the Australasian and US Collections and held the post of Lead Curator for Digital Mapping.