One of the Canmore museum’s most successful exhibitions is back for the month of February as part of Exposure 2011: Calgary Banff Canmore Photography Festival.
The Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre is re-presenting its Bow Valley Views, a series of before-and-after photographs that illustrate changes in Canmore’s landscape, history and heritage from its early history through to the present.
Museum curator Edward Van Vliet said Monday (Feb. 14) Exposure presented a good opportunity to re-hang the exhibit, which was created three years ago.
“We’ve had so many requests for it. Exposure was a good opportunity to hang it again,” he said.
For the museum, taking part in Exposure, an annual festival dedicated to the art of photography, is a perfect fit as it provides an opportunity to share photographs from its archives.
“It gives us exposure to a new group of people. Certainly that whole idea of historical photographs is interesting to a lot of people. It’s an opportunity to celebrate what we do,” he said, adding photographs are another way to tell Canmore’s story.
Last year, the museum presented an exhibition on Daisy Carroll, Canmore’s postmistress and amateur photographer whose work today is extremely important.
Just as it was in Carroll’s time in the early 1900s, Van Vliet said photography remains one of the most important mediums used to document history and tell the story about change, even though the technical aspects have undergone fundamental change from film to digital.
Bow Valley Views is an interactive exhibit with the modern photograph hidden behind it, inviting viewers to lift it and discover the change for themselves.
“There’s always something we can do for Exposure and we plan to be involved for many years to come,” he said, adding it’s a way to celebrate the role photography played in Canmore’s history.
Bow Valley Views also offers before-and-after views of Anthracite, Exshaw and Georgetown, and is on display to April 25.
