A history runs through it: press photography in Niagara

(St. Catharines ON) A new museum exhibit and book publication are the first documents to surface from a collection of over half a million press photographs taken of the Niagara region over the last 70 years. 

The St. Catharines Standard newspaper last year donated its archive of 600,000 press photography negatives to the local museum, which has begun the painstaking and time-consuming work of cataloguing the collection. 

Arden Phair, curator of St. Catharines Museum at Lock 3, called the collection the "most historical record that exists in Niagara," and estimates it will take 25 years to identify, sort, and organize.

The museum today opened the first gleaning of the collection in a special exhibit of 100 award-winning and noteworthy photographs. "Niagara Through The Lens: The Shots That Set The Standard" appears at the canal-side museum in St. Catharines from September 13 - November 2, 2008. The images range from sentimental set-ups of children at play, to quick-and-harsh captures of shootings and traffic accidents.

Published in conjunction with the exhibit, a local publisher has reproduced 200 photographs in a book -- also called "Niagara Through The Lens: The Shots That Set The Standard" -- that includes a history of the newspaper and biographies of 19 photographers.

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Niagara Through The Lens: The Shots That Set The Standard
St. Catharines Museum at Lock 3, 1932 Welland Canals Parkway
Sept. 13 to Nov. 2
http://www.stcatharineslock3museum.ca/  

Niagara Through The Lens (requires verification)
Vanwell Publishing
http://www.vanwell.com/