The Canadian Heritage Photography Foundation is an organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Canada's photographic heritage. As part of its mission, the foundation celebrates Earth Day by showcasing photographs that capture the beauty of Canada's natural environment and to encourage a greater appreciation for the importance of environmental conservation. Earth Day is an important event that celebrates the natural beauty of our planet and promotes awareness and action towards environmental conservation. In Canada, this event has particular significance in relation to our herit ..read more

We are excited to announce the completion of our recent project with the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Foundation to digitize and preserve more than 8000 at-risk photographic negatives from the CNE archival collection. Thanks to generous funding support from Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) Documentary Heritage Communities Program (DHCP), these images capturing CNE history have been digitized and will be available for generations to come. This portion of the Alexandra Studio collection is now available to browse on our Digital Collections website and through the CNE Heritage website. T ..read more

The Canadian Heritage Photography Foundation was established in 2001. It is an archive now containing over 150,000 photographic images spanning over one-hundred years from historic pictures to images by contemporary Canadian photographers. View fullsize Manitoba: Geologists perform detailed electromagnetic survey on ground to the North of Flin Flon by George Hunter. 1961 View fullsize Homeless Man & Dog by Leah den Bok, 2016 View fullsize British Columbia: Henry Hunt in Thunderbird Park, Workshop, Victoria by George Hunter View fullsize Portraits of artist Mary [Doris] McCarthy by Eric ..read more

CHPF is pleased to present over 1550 heritage photographic images of Manitoba. This collection was digitized in part, due to the generous funding from the Province of Manitoba. George Hunter was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1921. His family moved to Winnipeg in 1934, where Hunter attended high school and United College. It was here in Winnipeg where Hunter began his photographic career. Newly digitized images from the mid-1940s show Hunter honing his craft prior to his photo-editorial work with Winnipeg newspapers . Shots of friends and family having picnics, swimming or going for a countr ..read more

The CHPF archival staff has been busy this summer working on the second phase of a digitization project. Funded in part by the Province of Manitoba, the Foundation will digitize & preserve over 1500 images of the province dating from the 1940s to the 1980s by photographer George Hunter. Photographs of industry and culture, as well as Hunter’s early photo-editorial work will be available for the public to freely view on the CHPF’s Digital Collections website in late October. Here is a sneak peak at some of the amazing photography of Manitoba that has already been preserved. Welder in a met ..read more

Located in the Greater Toronto area, CHPF founder George Hunter was a longtime resident of the City of Mississauga. In celebration of George’s commitment to the city, CHPF undertook a project to archive personal photographic images by the residents who live here. The City of Mississauga, Canada’s sixth largest municipality, is located on the Traditional Territory and Treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. In 1967, residents of Toronto Township overwhelmingly voted in favour of re-naming their new town ‘Mississauga’. There are many different interpretations of how this wor ..read more

By Keigo Maekawa, CHPF Canada Summer Job Student - Archival Assistant Beginning in 1946, the Canadian International Air Show at the CNE is an event that captures the hearts and minds of spectators. It is a showcase of the development of technology through the years and acts as a bridge between eras. The 1977 Canadian International Air Show contains technological marvels like the 1970 Grumman F-14 multirole fighter with its variable-geometry wings to the classic biplanes like the 1925 Boeing Model 40 mail carrier aircraft. These spectacular flying machines represent the evolution of technology ..read more

By CHPF Archival Assistant Summer Student Rebecca Zeidenberg The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) is a staple of late-summer fun for locals in Toronto, and for the out-of-towners who travel to visit. Coming up to its 150th anniversary, the CNE is Canada’s largest fair, attracting 1.5 million visitors annually. With its first event taking place in 1879, the CNE — originally called the Dominion & Industrial Exhibition of Toronto — began as a showcase of Canadian agriculture and technology. Quickly, the fair expanded its scope to include other forms of entertainment, including beauty pagean ..read more

By Rebecca Zeidenberg - CHPF Canada Summer Jobs Student Contract When it comes to handling archival collections, especially those as vibrant and storied as the work of George Hunter, there are always fascinating discoveries to be found. Hunter’s photography of Manitoba, a collection of photographic negatives spanning from the 1940s-1980s, which is currently being digitized for the CHPF’s “The Manitoba Project” - is no exception. The collection includes the breathtaking aerial landscapes, industrial photographs, and portraits that are notable in Hunter’s seven-decade spanning oeuvre. Among the ..read more

Written by CHPF Interns Tamara Buciora & Xinyi (Cindy) Cao As Interns, our first task was to review the CHPF website and browse the online Digital Collection. We had no idea that when doing this, it would bring forth many memories from our own childhood. Please read on for our personal accounts of working with a not for profit photography archive for the first time. Tamara’s Story I decided to dive into the 1930s-1940s collection of photos on the website, as these are the years that my grandmother made her way over from Poland to England for a fresh start. The image below brought back the ..read more