Michel Hardy-Vallée
Membership Council
Well, let me explain. In 2005, I was working full-time, and moonlighting in various photography projects, hanging around APUG (as it was then called). I eventually did my MA in literature, and procrastinated by reading all sorts of photobooks and technical stuff, many of which was fed by my frequentation of forums.
So that at some point, I was wondering: since I'm Canadian, Whither Canadian Photography? There's Jeff Wall, but...
I inquired about a famous, yet obscure photographer:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/whatever-happend-to-john-max.20908/
Meh. Guess I had to find out for myself. So my procrastination turned into a PhD in art history. Long story short, I defended in June 2019, got my degree, and last week, some of this research got published in History of Photography:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03087298.2020.1771052
If you're not familiar with academic journals, usually the more forthright the title (e.g. Nature), the more the authority. There's nary an academic library with decent shelves in the arts and humanities that does not stock this journal. It's pretty much everywhere.
Not that it changes everything overnight. Like most things academic, it's under most people's radar, and that's fine. There's plenty of other things to think about these days.
But the real kicker for me is that what I did is now part of the permanent record: when someone else in this domain is scouring the journals to get a sense of what's out there, I'm there. Just like I relied for my research on all the stuff that had been published before, sometimes out of sheer luck/obsession/rage/dedication.
And you know, there's a little something of APUG (well, now Photrio, but I'm getting old!) in this. If it hadn't been for all the discussions I had around here, I would have been much more isolated, much less stimulated to find out more about photography. And yes, that old thread is cited in my PhD dissertation (it's going to be online within a year or two, you'll see).
So here's for you all: if you're interested in photographic history and/or Canadian photography, you can bypass the paywall and download the article free of charge from the journal's website using this link:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/J9F6X62SZIWEVMX65EBE/full?target=10.1080/03087298.2020.1771052
There's a limited number of downloads, but I thought there might be someone out there who could be interested. If you're out of luck, PM me...
So that at some point, I was wondering: since I'm Canadian, Whither Canadian Photography? There's Jeff Wall, but...
I inquired about a famous, yet obscure photographer:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/whatever-happend-to-john-max.20908/
Meh. Guess I had to find out for myself. So my procrastination turned into a PhD in art history. Long story short, I defended in June 2019, got my degree, and last week, some of this research got published in History of Photography:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03087298.2020.1771052
If you're not familiar with academic journals, usually the more forthright the title (e.g. Nature), the more the authority. There's nary an academic library with decent shelves in the arts and humanities that does not stock this journal. It's pretty much everywhere.
Not that it changes everything overnight. Like most things academic, it's under most people's radar, and that's fine. There's plenty of other things to think about these days.
But the real kicker for me is that what I did is now part of the permanent record: when someone else in this domain is scouring the journals to get a sense of what's out there, I'm there. Just like I relied for my research on all the stuff that had been published before, sometimes out of sheer luck/obsession/rage/dedication.
And you know, there's a little something of APUG (well, now Photrio, but I'm getting old!) in this. If it hadn't been for all the discussions I had around here, I would have been much more isolated, much less stimulated to find out more about photography. And yes, that old thread is cited in my PhD dissertation (it's going to be online within a year or two, you'll see).
So here's for you all: if you're interested in photographic history and/or Canadian photography, you can bypass the paywall and download the article free of charge from the journal's website using this link:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/J9F6X62SZIWEVMX65EBE/full?target=10.1080/03087298.2020.1771052
There's a limited number of downloads, but I thought there might be someone out there who could be interested. If you're out of luck, PM me...
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