I-14760.1

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Photographic Albums

Martha Langford, PhD.

Memories and Histories

As a museum of Canadian social history and the custodian of the Notman Photographic Archives, the McCord Museum has made a remarkable commitment to the collection and preservation of photographic albums. More than 250 albums contain a wealth of visual information and extraordinary insights into past lives. These albums come to life in the present when we consider the social contexts of the compilers – their photographic experiences and uses of photographic technology. Compilers of albums are photographic storytellers who use pictures in the show-and-tell of their lives. Albums show what can be shown, and they also keep secrets whose existence can be intuited from what is not shown, from the album's changes of direction and gaps. An album in a public collection can be approached as we approach our own photographic albums, eager to travel through time and space, and bursting with questions. Curiosity, compassion, memory, and imagination reignite the album's suspended conversations.