Richard Harrington: Arctic Photography 1948-53

"I am often asked what is the most memorable photograph I have ever taken. This is difficult to decide because many photos meant personal involvement. My Inuit photos to me are most meaningful. They were taken under difficult conditions. I came to know the people. We lived together and shared hardships." --Richard Harrington, 1998 Richard Harrington (1911-2005) was a renowned Canadian documentary photographer. He traveled to more than 120 countries, and his work has appeared in the Toronto Star, Life, Look, National Geographic, Paris Match, Der Stern and Parade Magazine. Some of his most memorable photographs were captured between 1947 and 1953, when Harrington took five expeditions to the Arctic. His work documents not only the transitioning lifestyles of the locals, as western influences encroached on traditional ways of living, but also a terrible famine that struck the Padleimuit in the Northwest Territories in 1950 -- when the caribou, the main source of food for the Padleimuit, did not follow their usual migration path. The moving photographs from this series document dignity, acceptance and love in the face of starvation. Richard Harrington: Arctic Photography is a curated selection of some of Harrington's most stirring and compelling photographs from his years in the Arctic. With an introduction by renowned curator and artist Gerald McMaster and a short biography written by Stephen Bulger, the primary representative of Harrington's estate, this collection of masterful photographs is an important and timely re-examination of Harrington's work in the face of a changing climate and renewed Indigenous activism. AUTHORS: Gerald McMaster is an artist, curator, author, professor and the Director of the Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Through all stages of his career, Dr. McMaster has advocated for and bolstered Indigenous voices and Indigenous visual knowledge. He was the recipient of the 2022 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for his Outstanding Contribution. Stephen Bulger is the founder and president of Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto, Ontario. Bulger has curated over 200 exhibitions, been named the representative for numerous Canadian and international photographers, published catalogs and books, and has participated in many North American and European art fairs.