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ARCHIVED - Framing Canada:
A Photographic Memory

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Essays

Portraiture

Gallery - A Little Background

Portraits provide a register of real and imaginary places, just as much as they document the visual qualities of a sitter. For instance, in the same way that one could transform one's self in the studio, emerging in costume or as part of a team, the studio could take on different forms; it could travel to the workplace or change to mimic the world outside.

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Photograph of Lola Powell posing for the camera, lying on her side on a pile of furs, 1904

Lola Powell in costume
Ottawa, Ontario, April 1904
Photographer: William James Topley
PA-138386
Source

Photograph of the Countess of Dufferin and her children in winter clothes posed before a winter background in a studio, 1873

Harriot Georgina, Countess of Dufferin, with her children,
posing in a studio against a winter background
Ottawa, Ontario, 1873
Photographer: William James Topley
PA-186002
Source

Photograph of a young woman, Miss Ritchie, in a fairy or angel costume, 1876

Miss Ritchie in costume
Ottawa, Ontario, March 1876
Photographer: William James Topley
PA-138391
Source

Photograph of members of a sports team wearing sweaters emblazoned with a maple leaf, and hats, posed around another man in a black uniform, 1896

"Crew of the 'Canada'"
Unknown location, 1896
Photographer: Josiah Bruce
PA-028846
Source

Photograph of an Aboriginal man holding a gun, seated at the summit of Groundhog Mountain, British Columbia, 1899

Aboriginal guide at the summit of Groundhog Mountain
British Columbia, July 26 or 27, 1899
Photographer: unknown
PA-083049
Source

Photograph of ten male historical research scholars, 1911

Historical research scholars at the Public Archives of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario, 1911
Photographer: William James Topley
PA-066741
Source

Photograph of a group of men and women, some on horseback, posed in front of three large tents in the woods, Jasper Park, Alberta, 1915

Press excursion, Tent City, Beauvert Lake
Jasper Park, Alberta, 1915
Photographer: William James Topley
PA-011271
Source