Ragsdale, Robert R10270
Description of the fonds: The Robert Ragsdale fonds consists of more than 535,000 photographic items, including b&w and colour negatives, transparencies and slides, as well as b&w and colour proofs, contacts sheets, and large exhibition prints. These represent virtually the entire production of Robert Ragsdale's photographic studio from 1955 to ca. 1996. Most of the photographs document theatrical and television productions in Canada, especially for the CBC, the Stratford Festival, the Canadian Opera Company, and Livent Productions. Ragsdale also created many photographic portraits of Canadian cultural figures, including A.Y. Jackson, Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood, Wayne and Shuster, Jessica Tandy, Martha Henry and Glenn Gould. He also worked as a 'company photographer' for such businesses as Shell Oil and Crown Life Assurance. The fonds also includes the numerous photojournalism assignments he carried out for publications such as Time, the Star Weekly, the Globe and Mail, Maclean's, etc. There is an original studio index to the negatives, organized alphabetically by subject. There may be small future accruals to the fonds. Of particular interest are the numerous photographs of theatre and opera stage productions, and the portraiture of well- known Canadian performers. Mr. Ragsdale has photographed a substantial number of important Canadian cultural and political figures throughout his career, who are represented either in the negatives and proofs of this acquisition, or in the exhibition prints. These include, Barbara Amiel, Jack Chambers, Mavor Moore, Brent Carver, Maureen Forrester, Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, Peter Gzowski, Harry Rasky, Lloyd Robertson, Tommy Hunter, Adrienne Clarkson, Bill Davis, Juliette, Martha Henry, Judy LaMarsh, Christopher Plummer, William Hutt, Pierre Berton, Harvey Kirk, Nancy Hermiston, Ginette Reno, Richard Monette, Sheila McCarthy, Jean Roberts, Janet Stubbs, Louis Applebaum, Margaret Laurence, Jack McClelland, Morley Callaghan, Pierre Trudeau, Margaret Atwood, Mike Harris and many more.
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