Canadian Photographs

“Splendid. This monumentally intimate collection journeys into the diverse soul of the nation. Moments of wit and affection contrast with an austere and formal observation of the human desire to settle, celebrate, and survive. A joyous and inspired book full of moments that are oddly resonant and deeply moving.”

-Atom Egoyan

A subversive look at the liminal locations and transitional moments that make up the Canadian unconscious and the Not-So-True North.

In this unvarnished look at Canada, renowned photographer Geoffrey James directs his gaze to the in-between spaces and forgotten places that resist the idea of a cohesive national identity. With an equable eye, James documents the ephemeral and the monumental: a demolition derby in Quebec, how an inmate at Kingston Penitentiary has decorated his cell, the Dickensian side door of Massey Hall in Toronto.

The photographs in this collection celebrate the everyday while meditating on the issues James's adopted home faces: the bifurcation of rural and urban, rapid growth and increasing inequality, and its journey toward truth and reconciliation. Linked by views taken from train windows from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, James's unofficial portrait of Canada brings into sharp relief the unfinished business of the nation as it lurches into the next century.

Canadian Photographs includes a conversation between the photographer and Peter Galassi, former Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art.