july 2009 issue
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Member Profile
Southern Exposure
His passion for Aboriginal subjects began in the Arctic. But his second career really took hold when Harry Palmer, P.Eng., turned his photographic eye to the First Nations of Southern Alberta
BY CHRISTINE COTTRELL
The PEGG
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Remembering the Past |
Majestic vistas surrounded his worksites in the Canadian and American Arctic northwest. Harry Palmer, P.Eng., was there to work on the Gas Arctic international pipeline project, and he would later return to the Arctic as director of environmental affairs for Dome Petroleum.
Mr. Palmer was awestruck by this harsh and sparsely populated area. The day-to-day lives of Inuvialuit and other indigenous peoples intrigued him. He responded to the rich environment by turning a camera lens to the wonderful imagery of the Beaufort Sea, to its people and places, and to Dome’s engineering projects.
Over three decades later, Mr. Palmer, now a life member of APEGGA, is still shooting. In fact he’s changed his career to documentary photography. Mr. Palmer’s current project is a Portrait of First Nations Society in Southern Alberta.
The Glenbow Museum in Calgary will display a selection of his images this summer. Starting in July, the museum is showcasing the culture and arts of First Nations peoples — a tie-in to the 30th annual convention of the Assembly of First Nations, July 21-23 in Calgary. More of his work can be seen on the +15 level of the Calgary Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Also planned are further celebrations in conjunction with the convention. Sections of downtown Calgary will be transformed into a marketplace and powwow grounds. A business exposition will take place in the TELUS Convention Centre.
Southern Bonds
Mr. Palmer has spent much of his time in recent years with First Nations in Southern Alberta. He first met Herman Many Guns, a Piikani Nation ceremonialist, at a 2004 conference in Kananaskis. That resulted in an invitation to come to the Peigan reserve, located along the Oldman River in southwestern Alberta, to photograph its people and places.
In time a positive relationship, built of mutual respect and trust, developed between the photographer and the people, and it continues today. The powwow circuit provided a means to meet people in their powwow regalia and then their families, and then to attend significant sacred ceremonies.
The forthcoming exhibitions are the first public sharing of this project. Eventually it is hoped that one or more books of this work can be used to share this positive side of First Nations society.
Aboriginals who have seen samples of this work like it, saying it enhances their pride and understanding of themselves. “Eventual publication of this work will go a long way towards mainstream people understanding and appreciating the good values of Indian society,” says Mr. Palmer.
In 2006, he was blessed and given a Blackfoot name by Piikani Chief Reg Crowshoe. Mr. Palmer, therefore, can be called mistaki spita, which means tall as a mountain. He was further honoured in 2008 with a Blackfoot headdress. Dr. Crowshoe “captured” him and delivered him to Piikani elder Leonard Bastien, who performed the ceremony.
First Frames
It’s amazing where a camera can lead you, his Aboriginal connection suggests. It all stems back, for Mr. Palmer, to an interest sparked when he was a child growing up in Calgary. In fact his bedroom closet doubled as a darkroom.
The engineering roots are also easy to find. He always liked to know how things worked. He only had a few toys, but this was not a drawback for the budding engineer — young Harry spent many hours creating models from toothpicks and glue.
He remembers taking apart spring-wound alarm clocks and putting them back together, just to see how they were built. “I always ended up with some extra clock parts, though.”
Later, armed with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of British Columbia, Mr. Palmer returned to Alberta to begin his career. Eventually he became the director of environmental affairs for the Polar Gas Project, and later held the same position with Dome Petroleum Limited.
In the late 1970s he started attending workshops to further his technical and esthetic skills, and enhance his photographic style. When he retired from engineering in 1984, Mr. Palmer’s photographic pursuits really began to gain momentum.
He’s published several books, including one called 125 Portraits and filled with images of people who are Companions of the Order of Canada. The full collection of this work can be seen in the National Archives of Canada. See box for all three of Mr. Palmer’s book titles.
The Digital Explosion
Shifting to digital photography in 1995, Mr. Palmer donated many of his old works to the National Archives of Canada. Then he began creating images using 3-D software and a digital printer. All the while he was gaining confidence and capturing unique imagery.
To mark the 50th anniversary of his graduation from UBC, Mr. Palmer donated a set of signed original prints to the university’s Faculty of Applied Science. The work of this photographer, by now renowned, made up the first solo exhibition featured at the new Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in Ottawa in its stand-alone building in 1992. Since then the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography has been absorbed by the National Gallery.
Canada Post has chosen his images for postage stamps, including the Alberta Centennial stamp in 2005, called Celebrating 100 Years of Wild Rose Country. Mr. Palmer was nominated for a 2005 inaugural Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award, which celebrates the excellence and importance of arts in Alberta.
His skills continue to evolve. He has created some images using a method know as Tallpecs. It’s a new art style that begins with a digital camera, transforming captured images into narrow, elongated and beautiful views. These photos look more like paintings than photographs, yet really they are neither.
Tallpecs were featured in his book The Tallpecs of Alberta & Saskatchewan, a celebration of the centennials of the two provinces.
Mr. Palmer’s respect for the cultures and traditions of Aboriginal peoples continues. “I’m now at the end,” he says. “The end of the beginning, that is.”
THE BOOKS OF HARRY PALMER
Calgary Places & People, 1983
125 Portraits, 1992
The Tallpecs of Alberta and Saskatchewan, 2004
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Games and culture |
- photos by Harry Palmer, P.Eng. |
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Children race at a Levern Blood Reserve track meet. |
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