Geraldine Moodie

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Geraldine Moodie

Geraldine Moodie , née Fitzgibbon (born October 31, 1854 in Toronto , Ontario , † October 4, 1945 in Midnapore , Alberta ) was a Canadian pioneer of photography . She was the first professional photographer to document Inuit life beyond the Arctic Circle.

Life

Geraldine Moodie was born in Toronto as one of six children to lawyer Charles Fitzgibbon and illustrator Agnes Dunbar Moodie. After the early death of her father, Geraldine and her family moved in with grandmother Susanna Moodie and her sister Catharine Parr Traill . There she helped her mother illustrate Parr Traill's book Canadian Wild Flowers .

During a stay in England she met her future husband, John Moodie, a distant relative and head of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) of Canada. After their marriage in 1878, they lived in various border posts, where Geraldine Moodie collected, drew and identified various types of plants and learned to take photographs. In 1895 she was commissioned to photograph numerous places and sights that had been visited on a trip by Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell .

In connection with the Saskatchewan Rebellion she made a portrait series of Cree - Indians and documented their ceremonies. She also recorded the daily work of the farmers and the NWMP in numerous recordings.

In 1904 she traveled to her husband in the Arctic . During her stay in Fullerton and Fort Churchill on Hudson Bay , she made a large number of portraits of Inuit. The images, which were only rediscovered in 1970, are now part of the collections of the British Museum and the National Archive of Canada and are considered to be the first photographic evidence of the life of the indigenous population of the Northwest Territories .

literature

  • Susan Close: Framing Identity: Social Practices of Photography in Canada (1880–1920) , 2008, Arbeiter Ring Publishing, ISBN 978-1894037297
  • Merna Foster: 100 Canadian Heroines. Famous and Forgotten Faces , 2004, Dundurn Press, ISBN 978-1550025149
  • Milbry Polk; Mary Tiegreen: Women who explore the world , 2003, Frederking & Thaler, Munich, ISBN 978-3492402200

Web links

Commons : Geraldine Moodie  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Moodie, Geraldine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fitzgibbon Moodie, Geraldine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian photographer
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Toronto
DATE OF DEATH October 4, 1945
Place of death Midnapore , Alberta