George Hunter. Photographer. The Last Post.


GEORGE HUNTER, PASSES AT 91

George Hunter,  a  Canadian photography pioneer, has passed away in Mississauga at the age of 91.  Hunter, a long-time National Film Board photographer captured the disappearing nomadic Inuit way of life in Canada's Arctic. 

 His career spanned 70 years and took pictures all over Canada, the United States and the world.  he considered himself as a visual historian and  "Canada's Location Photographer". Two of his pictures have been used on Canadian paper bills - salmon ($5 bill) and a petro-chemical plant ($10 bill).

Hunter took pictures for many news sources and high profile clients including the Winnipeg Tribune, Expo 67, and the Royal Family.  In the fifties after leaving the National Film Board, Hunter learned how to fly, purchased a Piper Cub and soon became an expert at low-level photography.  In the 60s he built a photography bus (complete with a 7 metre ladder on the roof for high-angle shots) and spent ten years traveling across Canada taking photographs.  In the last few years of his life, George Hunter has been donating his photographs to museums and art galleries in Canada.  He has made arrangements to turn his Mississauga home into a photography museum and retreat.


George Hunter and his  companion 102 year old Patricia Stevenson
In 2009, Linda Crane and myself assisted George Hunter and the Kipling Gallery in Woodbridge, with the first commercial gallery exhibition and sale of his photographs.  The exhibition, Canadian Inuit 194, featured print images taken from his original negatives which captured a now disappeared way of life in the Far North.   In 2012 we assisted Mr Hunter in the donation of some of his works to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

Two of the Hunter photographers shown in 2009 are posted. As well two photographs I took of Hunter at the Kipling Gallery media launch are also shown. 

There will be a memorial reception, 11 am, Saturday April 20, 2013 at the Scott Funeral Home (420 Dundas St. East) in Mississauga. 

The Toronto Star has published George Hunter's obituary at: 

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thestar/obituary.aspx?pid=164195785#fbLoggedOu




Pork, Hattie and grandson Ikkat, Baker Lake. George Hunter
Tapiti with his snow trowel 1946 - George Hunter

Comments

Unknown said…
George Hunter is a proud Canadian and a living legend. His work and his commitment to capturing valuable images of Canada's past (and present) spans several decades. Why this man has never received the Order of Canada is baffling to me. This site always helps me in my different custom essays.
Auntiem said…
George Hunters home is being sold what happened to the plans for a gallery?

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