Canadian Industrial Photographs, 1858 to Today

Songs of the Future: Canadian Industrial Photographs, 1858 to Today traces the history of Canada’s changing industrial landscape through the lens of some of the country’s most extraordinary photographers from the past 150 years, and includes more than 100 photographs by such artists as Alexander Henderson, William Notman, John Vanderpant, E. Haanel Cassidy, Ralph Greenhill, George Hunter and Edward Burtynsky.

The exhibition is curated by Sophie Hackett, the AGO’s assistant curator of photography, who integrates works from various periods into thematic concentrations, including images featuring: the construction of the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence River in the late 1850s; the building of the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company, a pulp-and-paper mill located in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, in 1912; and the development of the railroad in Canada.

Photo: E. Haanel Cassidy, Man on Tower, from the series Canadian Industry – Grain Elevator, 1940. Gelatin silver print, 23.7 x 35.3 cm. Gift of Sylvia Platt, 2002. Image courtesy the Art Gallery of Ontario / AGO Image Resources.© 2011 Art Gallery of Ontario.