The Amateur Mountain Photography of Ken Betts, 1929-1936
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies Legacy Theses 2001 "Down to the valley and up to right": the amateur mountain photography of Ken Betts, 1929-1936 Bryan, Dawn Margaret Bryan, D. M. (2001). "Down to the valley and up to right": the amateur mountain photography of Ken Betts, 1929-1936 (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/20621 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/41259 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca The author of this thesis has granted the University of Calgary a non-exclusive license to reproduce and distribute copies of this thesis to users of the University of Calgary Archives. Copyright remains with the author. Theses and dissertations available in the University of Calgary Institutional Repository are solely for the purpose of private study and research. They may not be copied or reproduced, except as permitted by copyright laws, without written authority of the copyright owner. Any commercial use or publication is strictly prohibited. The original Partial Copyright License attesting to these terms and signed by the author of this thesis may be found in the original print version of the thesis, held by the University of Calgary Archives. The thesis approval page signed by the examining committee may also be found in the original print version of the thesis held in the University of Calgary Archives. Please contact the University of Calgary Archives for further information, E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: (403) 220-7271 Website: http://www.ucalgary.ca/archives/ UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY "Down to valley and up to right": the amateur mountain photography of Ken Betts, 1929 - 1936 by Dawn Margaret Bryan A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES CALGARY, ALBERTA NOVEMBER, 2001 © Dawn Bryan 2001 Abstract The amateur photographic album is a rich source of social and environmental communication. Drawing on theories of representation and the social construction of 'nature', this study asks how 'nature' is communicated in amateur photographs of Canada's mountain parks. 408 black and white photographs, compiled into two albums, are analyzed in order to discover the content, composition and narrative structure used. A detailed picture emerges of the representation of Canada's mountain parks in the context of changing recreational practice during the 1920s and 1930s. The study concludes that the albums present evidence of adoption, adaptation and rejection of both aesthetic and documentary visual forms in order to present a mountain environment that is sublime, untouched and available for recreational exploration. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Dianne Draper, whose support and encouragement has been invaluable. Her kindness has been a fixed star in a firmament of bewildering possibility. I would also like to thank my examining committee for their careful reading and thoughtful questions—Dr. David Taras, Dr. Brian Rusted and Dr. Ann Davis. In every way, the guidance and support of the faculty and staff of the Graduate Program in Communication Studies in the Faculty of Communication and Culture has been tremendous. My parents, Eleanor and Lawrence Bryan—who were not only interested and understanding but provided information, childcare, lunch and technical support—have my everlasting thanks. And finally, to my family, I owe my greatest debt. Thank you to my children, Joel and Aphra, for all the times they didn't interrupt and all the times they did. And to Richard Sutherland, whose advice was not only invaluable but expert and whose patience I took for granted far too often, I say thank you—my thanks feels like a whisper when it would be a shout. iv Dedicated to the memory of Kenneth George Betts (1912 -1970) Mary Norma Betts (1910 - 2000) v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Inheriting a paradox 1 Why does this study matter? 9 What this study cannot do 11 Overview 13 CHAPTER TWO: THE PROBLEM OF 'NATURE' Introduction to Chapter Two 17 Issues in the social construction of natural environments 18 Nature and 'nature' 19 'Nature' and culture 23 Social construction and mountain parks 28 Issues in visual communication: photography and 'nature' 31 Photography and meaning 31 Photography and truth; photography and nature 34 Documentation 38 Issues in visual communication: the photographic landscape 40 Landscape as discourse 40 Issues in visual communication: amateur photography 43 The discourse of amateur photography 43 Amateur photography and landscape 51 Summary 55 CHAPTER THREE: THE MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE CASE Material practices 57 Photographic technology and innovation 57 Photographic albums 62 Material culture 66 Albums 66 Layout 71 Captions 72 Camera and photographic technology 73 Summary 79 vi CHAPTER FOUR: A HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR THE CASE Introduction to Chapter Four 81 History of images of the western mountain parks prior to 1930 82 Exploratory modes of representation 82 The railway school 85 Mountain photography at the century's turn 87 Dominant imagery of the western mountain parks 91 History of changing recreational activities prior to 1930 100 Roads and forms of transportation 100 New practices 103 Summary 107 CHAPTER FIVE: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE CASE Introduction to Chapter Five 109 Analysis of case photographs: content analysis 109 Content analysis: method 109 Content analysis: observations 111 Analysis of case photographs: compositional analysis 126 Compositional analysis: method 126 Compositional analysis: observations 126 Analysis of case albums 132 Analysis of case albums: organizational structures 133 Organizational structures: method 133 Organizational structures: observations 135 Analysis of case albums: words and phrases 143 Words and phrases: method 143 Words and phrases: observations 144 Summary 147 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Introduction to Chapter Six 149 Evidence of changing recreational uses 150 Conclusions 159 Recommendations 165 REFERENCES 168 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 121 Table 2 122 Table 3 122 viii LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS Photographic Illustration 1 69 Photographic Illustration 2 113 Photographic Illustration 3 114 Photographic Illustration 4 116 Photographic Illustration 5 118 Photographic Illustration 6 120 Photographic Illustration 7 125 Photographic Illustration 8 128 Photographic Illustration 9 130 Photographic Illustration 10 138 Photographic Illustration 11 139 Photographic Illustration 12 141 Photographic Illustration 13 146 Photographic Illustration 14 151 Photographic Illustration 15 153 ix 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION They had settled themselves around on the grass in poses seen in amateur snap-shots... Nabokov, Cloud, Castle, Lake Inheriting a paradox This thesis began with an inheritance of sorts—boxes and boxes of images, prints and slides alike, taken by my grandfather over his lifetime. They had been sitting for years in my grandmother's basement, those ranks of slides in drawers, decks of black and white photographs in cigarette tins, picture after picture of whatever my grandfather valued enough to capture with his camera. I went downstairs to look at them, that day several years ago when this project began to come into focus. Opening the drawers and the tins, I found photographs of kids, the house, the garden, but more than anything else, there were photographs of mountains. Mountains spilled out from the boxes, trips taken to Assiniboine, Lake O'Hara, climbs throughout the Rockies. There were photographs of gray, ranked peaks, white streams feathery with the speed of water, sun-chunked rock-fall and snow striped with ski-tracks. There were smiling men and women in jodhpurs and tam-o'-shanters. There were traces of wind-blown climbs to stone cairns, snug picnics in clumps of conifer, hikes along dark hills with a paper white sky. Then there were the vertigo inducing shots, straight down the skree 2 to water-drop lakes in valleys like fissured stone. For a moment the perspective made my head spin and when it cleared I was back in my grandmother's basement looking, for the first time, at what I had only glanced at before, remembering the little I knew. Kenneth George Betts, my grandfather, was born January 1,1912. He was the son of a printer from Hertford, England who had immigrated to Canada to work on the fledgling Calgary Herald. Like his father, Ken Betts also went to work at the Herald. He began in 1928, when he was still only sixteen years old, and would work for the next forty years in the newspaper's composing room. Ken Betts' working life might have been given over to the Herald, but his passion was for the mountains. He became an avid hiker, climber and skier, hopping freight trains in Calgary in his eagerness to get to Banff. Lawrence Grassi (climber, trail-maker, guide and eventual O'Hara Park Warden) introduced Betts to climbing and continued to be a life-long friend and influence. Later, Betts took up ski touring spending as much time as possible in the Lake O'Hara and Skoki areas. Betts was a life member of the Alpine Club of Canada and a member of the Skyline Hikers of the Canadian Rockies. His interest in capturing the mountains he loved would lead him to become an accomplished photographer. Subsequent membership in the Foothills Camera Club and the Calgary Colour Photographer's Club provided Betts with both training and context for the display of his work. By the time of his death in 1970, his images had graced the Calgary Herald newspaper and yearly calendar, and had been displayed in numerous exhibitions of photography.