#1690 Cheops Mountain, From 19 Snow Shed, Glacier Park, BC by William Notman Studios

William Notman (1826-1891) emigrated from Scotland to Montreal, where he established his photography studio. The first Canadian photographer with an international reputation, Notman opened additional studios across Canada and the United States to cater to the public’s growing fascination with photography.

Photography during the mid-19th century was not a simple process. The typical tourist generally did not carry a camera and much of the Notman studio’s images were taken with the tourist’s needs in mind. Visitors would look through Notman’s picture books and chose views to buy individually mounted or perhaps made up into an album and have a portrait taken as well. A gift of his photographs delivered to Queen Victoria pleased her so much that she named him “Photographer to the Queen.”

He was highly regarded by his colleagues for his innovative photography, and held patents for some of the techniques he developed. His work won awards at exhibitions in Montreal, London, Paris, and in Australia.

–adapted from Wikipedia

This is an unmounted print, with rich brown tones throughout, but with some minor fading of the image around the edge. On the right side of the frame one can see the gravel bed leveled in the terrain, and the mountain in the distance suggests the magnitude of the project.

Artist Bio (PDF)