Envisioning New Futures : Portrait Photographs of Black Victorians in Montreal, 1861-1901

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Envisioning New Futures : Portrait Photographs of Black Victorians in Montreal, 1861-1901
Abstract
The Scottish-born William Notman (1826-1891) immigrated to Montreal in 1856 and opened his photographic studio that year. He became the most renowned photographer in nineteenth-century Canada and was internationally recognized for his portraits of prominent Canadians. The author points out that among Notman’s collection are photographs of Black subjects who for the first time in history had access to a democratized form of visual self-representation that was accessible across class lines, easily disseminated, and more “truthful” than earlier forms of artistic production. She explains that photography emerged alongside the wake of industrialization, the abolition of transatlantic slavery, and the formation of Canada as a nation. The author argues that photographs of Black Victorians in Canada are grossly understudied despite their significance to the history of Canadian art and visual culture, and to the longstanding study of Black sitters in portrait photography in the United States. The author explores the ways in which Black Canadians imagined, documented, and delineated their citizenship, belonging, personhood, and freedom through photography at the most eminent studio in early Canada. The author contends that as a tool, photography had the potential to disrupt hegemonic representations, and materially concretize ambitions beyond the limitations of centuries of misrepresentation and contemporaneous opposition to racially marginalized citizens and immigrants. By examining photographs of Black Victorians in Montreal, the author’s thesis contributes to a greater understanding of the pluralism of Black Canadian histories, the formation of a national imaginary, legacies of representation, and photography’s function within the Americas.
Type
Master's Thesis
University
McGill University
Place
Montreal
Date
2018
# of Pages
i-147p.
Language
en
URL
Citation
Evoughlian, Sandra. “Envisioning New Futures : Portrait Photographs of Black Victorians in Montreal, 1861-1901.” Master’s Thesis, McGill University, 2018. https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/v979v695j.
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