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Pamela Harris

Pamela Harris, also known as Pamela Harris McLeod (born in 1940), is best known for her “portraits and extensive documentary work.”1 Social activism and themes of feminism have always been critical to her work as both a writer and photographer.2 Faces of Feminism is her most well-known project which she worked on between 1984 and 1989. The project consists of a collection of photographs of women taken across Canada.

Biography

Personal Life and Education:

Pamela Harris was born in Erie Pennsylvania in June 10, 1940.3 In 1962, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Pomona College,4 a private liberal arts college located in Claremont, California, near Los Angeles.5 Following graduation, while working in Harvard theatre, Harris met Canadian, Randell McLeod during a production of Macbeth.6 They married and moved to Toronto in 1967.7 Randell McLeod taught English at the University of Toronto. They have two daughters, Katy born in 1975 and Emily, born in 1978.8 Pamela Harris is a self-taught photographer who began to teach herself darkroom photography when she taught at a high school, which had a dark room,9 in the early 1970s. She further developed her photography skills by taking two workshops taught by Minor White in 1970 and 1972.10

Career

Photography:

Harris is a documentary photographer and writer. Her photographs consist primarily of nature and communities as well as photos of people and women across Canada. Her primarily black and white photographs, tend to take on a feminist, social activist lens. Hot Cold Shy Bold, her only children’s book, is the first book in which she uses colour photographs.11

Pedagogy:

Between 1962 and 1967 Harris taught English in Cambridge, Massachusetts.12 1970s Harris worked at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education developing educational tools including The Women’s Kit (1973),13

Exhibits

Spence Bay N.W.T: The Photographers’ Gallery, Saskatoon 1975

David Mirvish Gallery, Toronto 1976

Monterey Peninsula Museum, California 1977.14

1974 Arctic Women’s Workshop, Toronto. Photographs taken and printed by the residents of Spence Bay as part of the Darkroom Project Harris facilitated in Spence Bay.

The Face of Feminism in Toronto: The Toronto Documentary Project: December 7, 1984 to January 6, 1985.15

Faces of Feminism: The Toronto Photographers Workshop; March 17, 1990 to April 28, 1990. The exhibit consisted of sixty black and white photographs paired with text written by the women in the photographs.16

Works

Books by Pamela Harris

·     Another Way of Being (1976), Impressions Art Gallery

·     Faces of Feminism (1992), Second Story Press (‘With words by the women portrayed)

·     Hot, Cold, Shy, Bold (1995), Kids Can Press

Books containing Pamela Harris’s photographs:

·     Images of Ourselves: The Faith and Work of Canadian Women (1992), The United Church Publishing House- Photographs by Pamela Harris

Documentary Projects

The Women’s Kit: [Kit]

In 1972, while working at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) Pamela Harris began work on a kit of materials with the purpose of raising awareness among young people about their positions and experience as men and women. She later received assistance from Becky Kane and Donna Pothaar. The Women’s Kit is a box full of colourful, multimedia educational materials, including pamphlets, records, posters, postcards, newspaper reprints, biographies, short stories, poems, photographs and historical documents which document directly or indirectly women’s histories, achievements, oppression, socialization. It was one of the few education materials available in the 1970s which introduced students to the concepts of feminism. The kit was published by OISE in 1974 and distributed to high schools and colleges across the province,17 It is no longer in print but is available from the OISE storage holdings. In 2015, with Pamela Harris’s assistance The Women’s Kit came to the attention of the Feminist Art Conference (FAC) who exhibited the Women’s Kit using  the theme “Looking Forward, Looking Back.”18 FAC has created a digital version of Harris’s timepiece representing the early days of the feminist (art) movement in Canada.19

Another Way of Being: Spencer Bay Project:

Harris visited Spence Bay, Northwest Territories (now Taloyoak, Nunavut) in September 1972 and a second time,  for four months in 1973.20 During her time in Spence Bay, Harris photographed the people and the landscape. She also interviewed the residents she met and included in her photographs. This gave the opportunity for the people in her photographs to tell their own stories, in their own words. In 1976, a book entitled Another Way of Being was published. The book includes photographs and Harris’ writings based on her interviews. The book consists of 44 photographs divided into five sections titled; “Spence Bay”, “Images”, “A Conversation”, “On the Land” and “The People”. The collection includes photographs of children, men and women performing activities such as camping, sewing, dancing, exploring, weaving and fishing in the Spence Bay area.21 The photographs Harris produced are representative of Inuit life. Harris included words alongside of the photographs, believing that words can capture more complex realities than images. She commented “Images give a kind of emotional sense of place and texture and person. But the complexities I think are more in the writing. And that’s why for me this project is words and images.”22 Harris’ work gives an alternate perspective from traditional Indigenous art because the work depicts images that are shared between northern and southern cultures demonstrating the diversity in the Spence Bay area. Harris felt a deep connection to the community which is why she chose to frame her exhibit around Spence Bay. She stated that she would never have gone if not for that connection. Everywhere she looked, Harris saw “visual elements that she associated with Inuit culture coupled with elements that were familiar to her from Southern society.”23 Harris describes the Spence Bay exhibit as a “window rather than a mirror” as well as significant for emphasising the relationship between the photographer and the community it self.24 She placed a huge focus on community involvement when creating  her photographs so that they not “merely an image taken of someone, but one created with them.”25 During her return visit in 1973, Harris helped the residents to establish a community darkroom in the local women’s craft shop, where she taught the residents (mostly women) how to print their own photographs.26 Pamela Harris’ Spence Bay was exhibited in galleries across Canada and in the United States between 1975 and 1977.

The Darkroom Project:

During Pamela Harris’ visits to Taloyoak, Nunavut (previously Spence Bay, NWT) in 1972-73 she acquired the resources to help the community build a darkroom so they could print their photographs without have to send them away to a distant photo lab. The photos taken by the Inuit photographers were displayed in Toronto as the 1974, Spence Bay Project. Harris kept the photos after the exhibit and they became part of the collection Harris donated to the Art Gallery of Ontario titled the Spence Bay Collection. In 2017, with assistance from Harris, a student project exhibition using the Inuit’s photographers images, titled the Darkroom Project; Taloyoak was held at the Ryerson Image Centre. The program looked at the critical issues of Indigenous representation, consultation and curation.27 A number of observations and criticisms were made by the students when putting the exhibit together; “Harris knew that her presence as a photographer could be perceived as exploitative”28 and therefore Harris wanted to give something back to the community and as a result created a community darkroom that would provide the skills and materials needed to create, develop and print their own photographs.29 The women represented in these photographs wrote about their own experiences in relation to the photos, making them personal to the community. One of the issues raised by the student project was “how the accession of Harris’ collection was handled by the AGO.”30 Neither Harris nor the AGO staff working on the project made efforts  to  contact Tucktoo, Takolik, or Qauqjuaq to discuss the accession of their photographs into the AGO collections.31 This lack of contact meant the Inuit photographers had no influence from over their own representation within the collection,”32 When “looking further into the accession documentation and collections records,33 the students noted that Tucktoo, Takolik and Qauqjuaq  are  never referred  to  as “photographers”  despite the fact that  all of  their  work in  the  collection came   directly from an exhibition of photographic works. Instead, AGO accession and funding aid documentation refers to Tucktoo, Takolik and Qauqjuaq only as “participants” or “residents of Taloyoak.”34 The AGO states that “overall, it was disheartening to see a lack of input from the Taloyoak photographers in the collection, especially given that Harris’ intention for that the darkroom was “to provide participants with access to the power of self-representation.”35

Pamela Harris’ Spence Bay Collection:

In 2012, Pamela Harris gave all the archival material related to her time in Spence Bay to The Art Gallery of Ontario. Harris’ full collection has been divided into two collections, The Pamela Harris Photography Collection and the Pamela Harris’ Spence Bay Collection.36 The Photography collection consists of 172 silver gelatin prints taken by Pamela Harris and the Spence Bay Collection consists of correspondence, grants, interviews, articles and 30 photographs taken by three Taloyoak residents in 1973.

Faces of Feminism: Portraits of Women Across Canada:

Faces of Feminism (1992) published by Second Story Press, is Pamela Harris’ best known published book. She began the project in 1984 and continued until 1989. While researching the Canadian women’s movement as she took photographs of women representing feminism across Canada. In conjunction with the photographs, the women wrote pieces, as feminists, to accompany their photographs. The book consists of 75 black and white images of women from across Canada who have in some way contributed or are aspiring to contribute to the making or the redefinition of history.37 Faces of Feminism is an “eloquent testimony to the vitality of the woman’s movement in Canada.”38 The project, before it was published as a book, was an exhibition sponsored by The Toronto Photographers Workshop. Harris’ goal for this project was to give a face to women whose faces aren’t often seen or represented. Harris’ production of feminist art is a way to demonstrate that feminist activism takes many forms; “feminism is not monolithic of course. Not all feminists agree; priorities vary as do analyses and approaches, debate waxes hot and heavy around many issues.”39 Each photo displayed in her book is accompanied by text written by the women in the photos. An example of a woman represented in her book is Leslie Spillett who describes herself as a Metis woman, the child of a single mother. Spillett describes her experience growing up in Northern Manitoba and how she was physically and verbally assaulted due to her background and beliefs. Spillett explains how her experience with racism and sexism have helped her to find her own acceptance and become a Canadian labour activist.40 Our female experiences have been marginalized and distorted for thousands of years we need to keep these histories in our own way, as well, for how we record ourselves reveals and transmits our values. There are many methods of keeping track of ourselves; making pictures and collecting stories is one of them.41

Hot, Cold, Shy, Bold:

Hot, Cold, Shy Bold (published in 1995, by Kids Can Press) is Pamela Harris’ first children’s book. Like her other books, she uses her own photography. Unlike her other books the images are in colour. The theme of the book is opposites. There are 13 pairs of images placed side by side. The photographs show of children and adults portraying different moods represented in their faces. For example, two images are “a shy face” and “a bold face”. The book was made because children are fascinated with faces and to demonstrate how faces come in all shapes, sizes and expression. Pamela Harris’ purpose behind the book was to introduce children to different emotions and feelings. Photos of Harris’s daughters are included in the book on the page “a round face”. She also included photos of her mother and father as “an old face” and “a bearded face.”42

Awards:

1990 Duke and Duchess of York Prize in photography (Canada Council for the Arts)

Categories:

-American Canadian Photographer

-Canadian Female Photographic artist

-Feminist artist

-Canadian Feminist Photographer

-Documentary Photographer

-Black and white Photographer

-Female, social Activist photographer

-Social activist feminist

-Feminism and the arts

References

1.         Harris, Pamela. Faces of Feminism: Portraits of Women Across Canada. Toronto:

Second Story Press, 1992.

2.         Nazar, Marilyn. Draft Description and Finding Aid: Pamela Harris Spence Bay

Collection. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2013.

3.         Graham, Liisa. “The Spence Bay Project: Inuit Representation, Social Engagement, and Feminist Pedagogy in the Photographic Work of Pamela Harris.” Thesis., Ryerson University, 2015.

4.         Marilyn Nazar, Draft Description and Finding Aid. (Toronto: AGO, 2013), 2.

5.         Pomona College. “About Pomona College.” Accessed October 26, 2018. https://www.pomona.edu/about

6.         Pomona College. “Pamela Harris.” Accessed October 26, 2018. http://www.pomona62.com/Pam%20Harris.htm

7.         Liisa Graham, “The Spence Bay Project: Inuit Representation, Social Engagement, and Feminist Pedagogy in the Photographic Work of Pamela Harris” (Thesis., Ryerson University, 2015), 20.

8.         Pamela Harris, Faces of Feminism (Toronto: Second Story Press, 1992), 6.

9.         Harris, Pamela. Hot, Cold, Shy, Bold: Looking at Opposites. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1995.

10.       Graham, “The Spence Bay Project,” 20.

11.       Pamela Harris, Hot, Cold, Shy, Bold (Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1995).

12.       Pomona College, “Pamela Harris.”

13.       The Women’s Kit. “Interview with Pam Harris.” Accessed October 27, 2018.

http://www.thewomenskit.org/interview-with-pam-harris.html.

14.       Graham, “The Spence Bay Project,” 21.

15.       Canada’s Digital Collections. “Gallery TBW Digital Archive.” Accessed October 26, 2018. http://archive.gallerytpw.ca/.

16.       Canada’s Digital Collections, “Gallery TBW Digital Archive.”

17.       The Women’s Kit, “Interview with Pam Harris.”

18.       FAC. “Feminist Art Collective.” Accessed October 26, 2018. https://factoronto.org/the-womens-kit/.

19.       The Women’s Kit, “Interview with Pam Harris.”

20.       Marilyn Nazar, Draft Description and Finding Aid. (Toronto: AGO, 2013), 2.

21.       Graham, “The Spence Bay Project,” 21.

22.       Graham, “The Spence Bay Project,” 21.

23.       Graham, “The Spence Bay Project,” 31.

24.       Graham, “The Spence Bay Project,” 33.

25.       Graham, “The Spence Bay Project,” 33.

26.       Marilyn Nazar, Draft Description and Finding Aid. (Toronto: AGO, 2013).

27.       Robichaud, Alex. "Critical Issues in Exhibiting Indigenous Photography:“The Darkroom Project; Taloyoak, 1972-73”." The iJournal: Graduate Student Journal of the Faculty of Information 2, no. 3 (2017).

28.       Alex Robichaud, “Critical Issues in Exhibiting Indigenous Photography,” The iJournal 2, no.3 (2017): 3.

29.       Robichaud, “Critical Issues in Exhibiting Indigenous Photography,” 3.

30.       Robichaud, “Critical Issues in Exhibiting Indigenous Photography,” 5.

31.       Robichaud, “Critical Issues in Exhibiting Indigenous Photography,” 5.

32.       Robichaud, “Critical Issues in Exhibiting Indigenous Photography,” 6.

33.       Marilyn Nazar, Draft Description and Finding Aid. (Toronto: AGO, 2013).

34.       Robichaud, “Critical Issues in Exhibiting Indigenous Photography,” 6.

35.       Robichaud, “Critical Issues in Exhibiting Indigenous Photography,” 6.

36.       Marilyn Nazar, Draft Description and Finding Aid. (Toronto: AGO, 2013).

37.       Pamela Harris, Faces of Feminism (Toronto: Second Story Press, 1992).

38.       Harris, Faces of Feminism, 15.

39.       Harris, Faces of Feminism, 12.

40.       Harris, Faces of Feminism, 102.

41.       Harris, Faces of Feminism, 169.

42.       Pamela Harris, Hot, Cold, Shy, Bold (Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1995).