Carleton University 1!142- 1992 Ottawa, Canada K 1S 5J7 ZP
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-- . Carleton University 1!142- 1992 Ottawa, Canada K 1S 5J7 ZP Thesis contains black and white and/or colowed graphs/tables/photographs which when microfilmad may lose their significance. The hardcopy of the thesis is available upon request from Carleton University Library. ----- - - The University Library FlVdMIYG IDENTITI: MATTE GUNTEZWOJ,GER4LDINE MOODE AND THE SOCIAL PR4CTICE OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN CAVADA (1880- 1920) by Susan Michelle Close B.F.A. A thesis submitted to the Facdty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfïent of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Canadian Art History Carle ton University OTTAWA, Ontario 23 May 1995 O 1995, Susan blichelle Close National Library 8ibliothèque nationale 1+1 ,,Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services semices bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OttawaON K1AOW Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada Your 6ie VmkfeibKB Our IWNm n)#renCe The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distriiute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de rnicrofiche/fïlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. iii bstract This thesis examines the practice of Etvo tum of the century wornen photographers, Mattie Gunterman and Geraldine Moodie. From a revisionist point of view, it argues that photography is a social practice used by women professionals and amateurs as a vehicle to explore and establish iàentiv. The Introduction provides an overview of cultural and photographic theonsts. Chapter One examines the impLications of the change from amateur to professional practice for women photographers. Chapter Two situates Guntennan's photographs as a form of personai narrative within the context of the famiiy album and the practice of amateur wornen photographers. Chapter Three examines Moodie's portraits of Native people in terms of professional photographic practice and discourse on the representation of Self and Other. Acknowledgements A special note of thanlcs is due to my supemisor, Professor Natalie Luckyj who has been a supportive and chailenging critic: and to Professor Ruth Phillips, Graduate Supervisor who has also provided direction. I also wish to acknowledge Henri Robideau who generously shared with me his unpublished manuscript on Mattie Gunterrnan. 1 would also like to acknowledge the following for theV assistance during the research and writing of this thesis: Peter Robertson, Andrew Roger, Meiissa Rombout, the National Archives of Canada Archives; Lon Pauli , National Gallery of Canada; Bill MacKay, RCMP Museum, Regina; Domy White, Medicine Hat Museum, Medicine Hat; Monte Greenshields, Photographers Gaiiery, Saskatoon; Andrea Garnier, Catherine Myhr, Glenbow Museum, Calgary; Gerald McMaster, Canadian Museum of Civilization; Bernadette Leslie, Fred Light Museum, Battleford; Dean Busche, AUan Sapp Gaiiery, North Battieford; and Petra Watson, Simon Fraser University Art Gallery, Vancouver. The excellent quality of the illustrations vas achieved tvith the technical assistance of Nestor Querido at the Teaching and Learning Resource Center, Carleton UniversiW. My final thanks are to Judy Mcay, Thuy Tran, and DOM^ CVawzonek for childcare; to Cynthia Brassard for editing; Judy McKay who assisted in mWg this thesis bard copy; and my family and ffiends for their support, particuiarly Richard Holden and our son, Caleb. Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Photograph of Geraldine Moodie vi Photograph of Mattie Gunterman vii Preface viii Introduction: Pho tography, Wornen and Identity 1 Chapter 1 From Amateur to Professional: Contexts, 38 Contacts and Codes of Production Chapter 2 Mattie Gunterman & The Family Album Chapter 3 Geraldine Moodie: Self and Other Conclusion Appendix 1 Mattie Gunterman 1872-1945 Chronology Appendix 2 Geraldine Moodie 1854-1945 Chronology Appendix 3 G un terman Moodie Con textuai Timeline List of Illustrations Bibliography Geraldine Moodie (1854 - 1945) Mattie Guntennan (1872 - 1945) Preface The conceptual base for this thesis is an investigation of how women use photography to explore identity. It was developed in part from research. As 1 searched through Canadian women's photography, 1became aware of common issues and themes in women's images. It is also informed by my own photographic practice. 1had for some tirne observed that my own work and that of other tvomen dealt ivith issues revolving around identity; self-portraits were a cornmon practice. Two women photographers, Mattie Gunterman and Geraldine bloodie were chosen because they are representative of the relationship between wornen and photography at the tum of the century in Canada. Mattie Gunterman is an example of the amateur tvho evplored identity through the creation of a famiiy album/ visual narrative. Geralduie Moodie represents how tvomen were able to establish a professional identity through the practice of photography. Lucy Lippard (1976) points out that the women's movement has given us a new freedom to approach art and criticism in a more personal, autobiographical way. if that seems caiied for. The choice of photographers was also a personal one. Geraldine Moodie lived and ran a successful commercial photographic studio in Batdeford, Saskatchewan from 1905 to 190G. My hometown of North Battieford is only a few miles away, just across the North Saskatchewan River. 1had grown up ~5thFort Battleford as the focus of my early studies of Canadian History. Mattie Gunterman's work was fWaras tveii through the Photographers Gallery in Saskatoon where 1 was an active member when the Gallery held the fxst exhibition of her work in the 1970s. Introduction Photography, Women & Identity Not only do we have to grasp that art is a part of social production, but we also have to realize that it is itseIF productive, that it actively produces meanings. Art is constitutive of ideology; it is not merely an illastration of it. It is one of the social practices through which particular vie- of the mrld, definitions and identities for us to live are constructed, reproduced, and even redefrned.1 Photography has become a household word and a household want: it is used alike by art and science, by tove, business, and justice; is found in the most sumptuous saloon, and in the dingiest attic-in the solitude of the Highland cottage, and in the glare of the London gin-palace-in the pocket of the detective; in the ce11 of the convict, in the folio of the painter and architect, among the papers and patterns of the mil1 owner and manufacturer, and on the brave breast of the battlefield.2 Although some revisionist work has been done in Britain and the United States to explain the role of women in the history of photography, Little has been pubiished about the role of women in photography in Canada. To date, the photographic canon in Canada described by Greenhill and BineU is a patriarchal presentation featuring the exploits of male explorer/ photographers active in the public domain and Stanley Triggs' examination of the studio practice of FVïam Nom. This thesis wüi examine how women, as photographic practitioners, created a ferninine voice / narrative through their visuai images, despite the patriarchal discourses by which they were surrounded. 1 will develop the argument that photographs by women at the turn-of-the-century were more than 1. Griselda Pollock, Vision & Difference: Femininitv, Feminism and the Histories of Art (London 1988),30. 2. Lady Elizabeth ktiake,l857, in Beaumont Newhall, Photogra~hv:Essavs & Images Illusuated Readines in the Historv of Photo~raphv(New York 1980),81, cited in Carol Squiers, The Critical Image: Essavs on Contemporarv Photowaph~( Seattle 1990), 9. simply pictorial studies. Their images can be seen as a gendered social practicd that explores/estabiishes female identity. This thesis will provide a revisionist presentation of women's contribution to the history of photography in Canada. It wiii dernonstrate that despite their rnarginalization, women played a sign5canc role in the development of photography in Canada and that through feminist intervention in the histones of art, their work can be analyzed as social practice. After compiiing a list of professional and amateur women photographers working in Canada from 1880 to 1920,Ihave chosen to e~arninethe lives and work of ~CVO,Mattie Gunterman (1854-1935)and Geraldine Moodie (1872- 1945). These tvomen seive as case studies to illustrate aspects of the role of women in the development of photography in Canada; Gunterman wiU be considered as an amateur practitioner whüe Moodie wiLi be re-positioned as a professional . AFter establishing a context for each of the case studies, my thesis analyzes how photography served women as a tool for the exploration and establishment of iden tity. This analysis is infonned by a theore tical framework ivhich includes recent feminist art theory, cultural theory on post-colonial representation and current photographie cnticism. Chapter One, From Amateur to Professional: Contexts. Contacts and Codes of Production, examines the positioning. representation and contextualization of women in photography in Canada at the turn-of-the-century. This discussion focuses on the change from amateur to professional photographer and outlines 3. Social practice is defined as an activity/ritual of society reflective of social history and used in this thesis to describe the process of photography rather than elevating the end product, the photograph, to the status OF an art object. the factors of resistance or marginalization whïch women photographers faced.