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.
26 June 2013 at 17:25
Auntiem said…
George Hunters home is being sold what happened to the plans for a gallery?
18 May 2014 at 12:42
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sublimnos - Muse for James Cameron

Image
. . Sublimnos No Longer Out Of Sight … And Definitely Not Out of Mind By Stephen Weir It will take a long long time for a piece of Canadian dive history to rust into dust. Given the hard feelings surrounding the historic Sublimnos Project, the deteriorating, remains of that underwater habitat could well be an above-water Lake Ontario eyesore for years until rust indeed becomes dust. Back in the summer of 1969 Sublimnos was set down in the waters of Georgian Bay near Tobermory, Ontario the self-described "fresh water scuba diving capital of the world" .It was a bargain basement underwater research station. Constructed from a railroad tanker for just $10,000.00, Sublimnos became Canada’s first subsurface research laboratory. From 1969 to 1971 the Sublimnos project, funded and spearhead by physician, author, explorer and frequent Diver Magazine contributor Dr. Joe McInnis, was headline news around the world. Built to accommodate up to four divers at a time, in its first two-ye...
Read more

America Wild. The name of a movie, a metaphor for the star!

Image
. Recent Huffington Post Film Story by Stephen Weir   http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/../../stephen-weir/america-wild-interview_b_11397002.html Rachel Pohl - photo by George Socka “ I don’t work out.   I don’t diet.   I don’t prepare before climbing,” confessed 23-year old mountain climber Rachel Pohl.   “ Why can I (climb up a near vertical rock face) do it?   Thank my mother and father for their DNA!” The modest adventurer is starring in   "America Wild: National Parks Adventure".   She doesn’t simply climb mountains, she preternatural ly finds pinkie sized breaks in sheer rock faces. One foot on one side of a stone crevice, the other on a different rock face altogether. And between her legs? The great abyss.   publicity still - Devil's Tower America Wild, a new Imax movie narrated by Robert Redford, recently had its Canadian premiere in Toronto.   It has begun showing at museums, galleries and Science Centres all acro...
Read more

SCUBA DIVING INSPIRES UNDERWATER TATTOOS (AND TOE NAIL POLISH)

Image
 . Chasing Ink With Camera! One Day On A Little Cayman Dive Boat The compass has a dive flag. Celtic ink with 3 waves for the dive world Stripping down in Little Cayman's only food store Little Cayman Island, population 200, attracts only two types of visitors.  Ornithologists. Experienced Scuba Divers. Ornithologists because of the birds. The largest colony of Red Footed Boobies in the Caribbean is found on Little Cayman's Booby Pond. Scuba Divers go there because of the sheer wall of coral found in the island's underwater preserve, just north of the island. My wife and I returned from Little Cayman Island on Sunday.  We weren't there for the birds. Flamingo is the logo for dive haven Bonaire. We spent most of our week on a couple of dive boats. One large scuba boat was operated by Reef Divers out of the Little Cayman Resort.  The other, a small Boston Whaler operated by three divers, was out on the reef hunting the invasive lionfish...
Read more