Canadian Photographs : Jan Normandale

From the heyday of the 1950s to the 1970s Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba’s towns in the Palliser Triangle were focused on production of wheat and other grains. The main streets would face the railway station and T off Railway Avenue with merchants lining both sides of Main St. or Centre St. Often these towns would have anywhere from 4 to 9 grain elevators.

Beginning in the 1980s the grain merchants who controlled the grain elevators began constructing inland terminals made of continuous formed concrete. These giant elevator complexes were located outside of the towns and often grain farmers had to drive up to 20 km or more to deliver their grain to these new giant inland terminals. These terminals were up 10 to 15 times the capacity and throughput of the older wooden elevators. Economy of scale was the way to go. The grain companies began closing their operations in the towns and sometimes even demolishing their former wooden grain elevators.

Today few towns in the Palliser Triangle or elsewhere on the prairies have a row of more than two or three elevators at most and these town’s elevators are on borrowed time.

This has changed the culture of the Canadian Prairies. Small towns are losing merchants and services who can no longer work with this new economic model. As a result there is a demographic shift to the regional centres where there is some level of growth and services.

These photographs were taken as these changes were taking place. The flight from these towns continues today.

Wooden grain elevators of the Palliser Triangle, an agricultural model in decline, many have been either demolished or succumbed to fires.

I've been assembling a collection of active and abandoned industrial building photographs from multiple locations throughout Southern Ontario. My interests range over the perspectives defined by various time periods, finishings, and industry types. This set includes manufacturing locations for household cleaning products, chemical production, and power generation; also bakeries, cotton mills, brick plants, slaughter houses and active petroleum refineries.

Cameras used include both film and digital formats.

I believe that film photography often requires a different approach and the end result can appear to have a visual texture which is distinct from those of digital images. Of course, some things digital does better and film excels at others. For me, it’s all about options and solutions; trying to best match the subject with the medium. 

The topical photographs in this panel were taken with medium format cameras such as Hasselblad, Pentax 67, Fuji 690 and Minolta Autocord. Additional 35mm format work included has been done with Nikon, Yashica, Voigtlander and Leica cameras.

Film choices are abundant and include C41 and E6 films from Kodak, Fuji and Agfa.

Black and white film photography has a long history dating back to the early 1800s and its growth is ongoing. The black and white photograph has an appeal that continues to hold people's interest. Even today many digital photographs are made in black and white as an aesthetic decision. These can also be converted from color film through the use of scanners or taken digitally and further converted either in camera or in post processing. 

All of the photos in this section were achieved using film and the predominant photographs were taken with medium format cameras such as Hasselblad, Pentax 67, Fuji 690 and Minolta Autocord. The additional 35mm format work has been done with Nikon, Yashica, Voigtlander and Leica cameras.

Film choices are abundant and include B&W films from Kodak, Fuji and Ilford.

Photographed with toy, digital and film cameras, these abstracts are ‘found’ images that are incidental to my photographic activity. I have never deliberately searched for such random events, but I enjoy them for the visual exercise, expressly playing on light and geometrics.

Man’s four-wheel love affair began in the late 1800s with those daring wealthy who had an abundance of time and money to ‘go for a ride’. Before too long, the mass production techniques of Henry Ford helped to establish the industry. Since the 1950s the ubiquitous personal vehicle has become further entrenched in our culture.

For some people, the quality of their auto marks their status in society, while for others a car is selected to take them from point A to point B, as integral transportation for family, kids, groceries and jobs. In addition, all persuasion of car fanatics, hobbyists and specialized collectors make up the wide landscape that drove us from the era of the Detroit Big Three to the growth of todays’ global car industry.

These glimpses from my road trips include the much-loved, the damaged and the dumped.

Canada’s topographic profile as explored under low light conditions at night.

It's precarious to try to represent any nation as complex as the United States of America through a selection of photographs. At best one can skip across the surface of the pond, like one of those flat stones thrown by us as children, and offer our observations.

Of course, any such set has the built-in paradox that once assembled, it immediately consigns itself to the past.

I hope that this set of images conjures up a small perspective of the American landscape and by implication viewers get a glimpse into this great nation of the 21st Century.