A picture’s worth a thousand words

By Heather Killen

Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many questions will it leave behind?

Frances Lourie, curator of Bridgetown’s James House Museum, said that one of the most challenging parts of her job is simply finding names for the faces she finds in the archives.

While most towns had at least one prominent photographer, Bridgetown is especially rich in its visual history.

In addition to the 19th century’s traveling photographers who arrived periodically by train to take snap shots, a steady succession of prominent photographers set up shop in Bridgetown leaving behind a wealth of images depicting the people of the area.

Many of the faces found in this legacy are unnamed and unclaimed. Sometimes Lourie gets lucky, and a long lost descendant arrives and asks her the right question.

“Relatives from the Dodge family were here and talked about two little twin boys nick-named Thunder and Lightening,” she said. “I thought of a picture I’d seen in the archives of little twin boys that looked like hellions - and that’s who it was - Fred and Harry.”

Sometimes it’s a happy reunion, other times the photos come as a shock to people. Surprise images of long-lost relatives who died young in the war.

GEORGIA CUNNINGHAM

Georgia Cunningham, Bridgetown’s most prolific photographer, left behind an archive of thousands of images.

Her former studio, founded by Joseph Rice and then Edith Crosskill, now stands empty beside the grocery store.

Cunningham operated it until sometime in the mid 1950s. Lourie added the studio remained closed and untouched after her death in 1969 until the mid 1980s when Cunningham’s estate donated her work to the museum and public archives.

“When we walked into her studio, it was as if she just left it,” said Lourie. “You could see a shelf with rows and rows of boxes filled with glass negatives, the linoleum on the floor was the same as what’s seen in her pictures, and her developing equipment was still there.”

Even the studio’s window display with its faded green crepe paper was intact. Lourie added Cunningham probably didn’t take these photos and it’s possible she neglected to change them when she took over the studio.

Cunningham began taking photos when she was about 18 years old, and was mostly a self-taught studio photographer, according to Lourie.

Ironically while she left behind a rich visual history of the people and places in Bridgetown, very little is documented about Cunningham herself.

“She spent her entire life taking pictures, and yet I know of only one picture of her,” said Lourie. “And that’s in a video.”

It’s evident from the body of work and the fact she was able to support herself and two sisters, that Cunningham became a successful photographer.

“Her collection gives us a visual record of the residents, homes and businesses of the time,” she said. “She gives us a glimpse into the social climate of the time. People of all walks of life were photographed.”

PHOTOGRAPHED BUSINESSES

Cunningham began her career by photographing the businesses along Queen St. She then turned to photographing children.

She was particularly good with this challenging subject, and it became a large focus of her work towards the end of her career.

Eventually she and Emma Harris were regularly called on to take the class photos each year in the county.

Flipping through yellowed pages of the Bridgetown Monitor, Lourie has seen the occasional advertisements that Cunningham once placed to promote her business.

Much of Cunningham’s work consists of studio portraits and her changing styles suggest she liked to experiment with backdrops, lighting and new developing techniques.

“If she liked a subject, she would take a whole box of photos of them,” she said. “There’s a little boy and girl, and their dog.”

It’s quite possible that Cunningham had a lucrative side business selling reprints of other photographers’ pictures. Lourie said that a large number of glass negatives found among the archives are actually photos of other photos that were taped to the wall.

This method of creating negatives for old photos was used prior to digital imaging to make copies of photos. While these negatives have been filed with last names and catalogue numbers, their identities remain a mystery.

Cunningham also left behind a large archive of her own work, and while she maintained a careful filing system for her negatives, many of her subjects aren’t known.

The James House Museum has all of her early work with glass negatives, while the public archives in Halifax has her later work.

Lourie said she is amazed at the volume and quality of the glass negatives.

“First they survived the mail when they were shipped from Montreal,” she said. “Then, all those years, they sat stacked on top of each other. And yet, with the exception of only one with a tiny chip in the corner, all of these negatives are perfectly preserved.”

Some of Georgia Cunningham’s work can be seen on permanent display at the James House Museum. For more information contact Frances Lourie at 665-4530.