On June 4, 2012, Canada Post announced the Canadian Photography series as one of two new series for Canada Post’s 2013 stamp program.
The Canadian Photography series is the first of a five-year series depicting 150 years of the most compelling photographs taken by Canadians.
According to Stamp Design Manager Alain Leduc, “I see this series as a continuation of Art Canada – these are masters of the art of photography – but we’ve changed and freshened up the design and the format to better suit the medium.”….framed by the challenge of showcasing the best Canadian photography from Confederation to the country’s sesquicentennial in 2017…..
“Instead of one or two images by a particular photographer each year, we treated the photography we selected as art pieces, combining those choices to produce an annual gallery of the best of the best.” The selection of these images was a gargantuan task, one that needed to be approached with expertise, knowledge and balance. To select the photography for the series, Leduc’s virtual photography task force included the following: Karen Love, Manager of Curatorial Affairs at the Vancouver Art Gallery; David Mattison, BC Archival Network Service, Archives Association of British Columbia; Ann Thomas, Curator of Photography at the National Gallery; Maia Sutnik, Curator of Photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario; Nora Hague, Senior Cataloguer, and Hélène Samson, Curator, both of The McCord Museum’s Notman Collection; Lorraine Monk, photography curator and author who spent two decades as the executive producer of the Still Photography Division at the National Film Board; Mario Béland, Curator of Historical Art and Photography at the Musée national du Québec; and Lilly Koltun, internationally known art and photography historian, Adjunct Research Professor in Fine Art History at Carleton University and former Director General of the Portrait Gallery at Library and Archives Canada.
The initial Permanent domestic stamps of the series features work by early photographers Thomas Coffin Doane, Geraldine Moodie and Margaret Watkins, as well as contemporaries Jim Breukelman and Hungarian-born Canadian, Gabor Szilasi.
The work of Arnaud Maggs, known for his 48 views of Yousuf Karsh, graces the International rate stamp, while Rodney Graham’s Basement Camera Shop appears on the U.S. rate stamp.
Leduc concludes that in the development of the series, the group rejected typical parameters of Canadian photography, choosing instead the best work of photographers who identified as Canadian, whether by birth or by choice, as well as photographs that were shot within Canada, and those that demonstrated a Canadian vision of the larger world.”
Canadian Photography
Canada’s Stamp Details (Vol. XXI No 4; October to December 2012)
https://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/collecting/stamps/2013/2013_mar_photography.jsf
Today, Canada Post released the second issue in a five-year series on Canadian photography.
NEWS RELEASE
Images by Burtynsky, Cohen, Herzog, Hoy, Lambeth, Notman and Vallée featured in second set of Canadian photography stamp series
July 7, 2014
OTTAWA (Ont.) – Canada Post is celebrating the work of master photographers Edward Burtynsky, Lynne Cohen, Fred Herzog, C.D. Hoy, Michel Lambeth, William Notman and Louis-Prudent Vallée, with the second issue in a five-year series on Canadian photography.
Seven stamps will feature some of their most iconic photographs, carefully selected with the help of archivists and museum curators and other experts with historical and technical knowledge of photography. The series includes five Permanent™ domestic stamps, one U.S. rate stamp and one International rate stamp.
Featured artists:
Edward Burtynsky: With works featured in more than 50 major museums around the world, Burtynsky is one of Canada’s most respected photographers. Images such as Railcuts #1, shot in 1985, explore the link between industry and nature, finding beauty and humanity in the most unlikely of places.
Lynne Cohen: Internationally acclaimed, Cohen is famous for striking images of institutional interiors with hints of human presence. Photographs such as Untitled draw attention to the incongruity of our fabricated environments, from uninhabited living rooms to spas and offices.
Fred Herzog: Herzog’s work is a time capsule. He is famous for his photographs of street life and for shooting in Kodachrome slide film to capture his subject matter in full colour. Bogner’s Grocery, taken in 1960, displays the vitality these signs bring to a city street.
C.D. Hoy: Hoy’s photographs such as Unidentified Chinese Man are an invaluable record of the rich cultural diversity of B.C.’s Cariboo region between 1909 and 1920. They are important historical and aesthetic portraits of the Interior’s Aboriginal Peoples, Chinese workers and Caucasian labourers.
Michel Lambeth: Lambeth’s well-known St. Joseph’s Convent School, taken in 1960, emphasizes Toronto street life, while capturing his love for working people and concerns about urban social conditions.
William Notman: Reputed to be on the lam from the law in Scotland, William Notman arrived in Montréal in 1856. He became Canada’s most successful photographer of that time, owning the largest photography business in North America, with branches across Canada and the United States. Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill posed for him. So did the Fathers of Confederation, royalty and celebrities, as well as tradespeople, hunters, lacrosse teams and others.
Louis-Prudent Vallée: Vallée’s work portrays the city of Québec in the 19th century. He opened his studio in 1867, and in addition to portraiture, he spent much of his time shooting scenes that would benefit tourism in its infancy. The photograph on the stamp was taken circa 1894.
About the stamps
The stamps measure 36 mm x 30 mm (horizontal) and 30 mm x 36 mm (vertical) and are available in booklets of 10 and booklets for domestic stamps and of six for U.S. and International denominations. Two souvenir sheets (one of three vertical stamps/one of four horizontal stamps) measure 150 mm x 75 mm. They were printed by Lowe-Martin Group and designed by Stephane Huot. The Official First Day Cover cancellation site is Picture Butte, Alberta. To download images of the stamps or to purchase philatelic products, please visit canadapost.ca/shop.
