Extra, Extra, read all about it— The Galt Museum focuses their lens on photojournalism from the Lethbridge Herald in a new exhibit,“ Extra! Extra! Eras of Photojournalism in Lethbridge which runs until Aug. 4.
Guest curator Tess McNaughton condensed an online exhibit Bobbie Fox has been working on since Covid, into a set of panels and photos from Herald photographers Lloyd Knight and Orville Brunelle who were working in the ’40s and ’50s and David Rossiter and Ian Martens who represent the transitional era.
The exhibit puts the lens on how photojournalism has changed through the Analogue Era, Transitional Era, and Digital Era and how it has transitioned from analog cameras with film and darkrooms to the digital era where photojournalists are also expected to be multi-media journalists.
“We have a very large collection of photographs from the Lethbridge Herald, about 100,000 of them. We focussed on four photographers who have all won awards and showed the transition through the eras,” said Bobbie Fox, who noted she began working on the exhibit during the pandemic.
“ It really captures these photographer’s works,” Fox said.
“ These are all photographers who have won awards for their work,” Fox said, noting examples of some of these award photographs are included in the exhibit. She observed the exhibit covers photography from most of the twentieth century until now as Orville Brunelle worked for the Herald from the 1950s to ”70s before starting his own photography studio.
“Lloyd Knight started as a paperboy and worked his way up in the ’40s and ’50s. David Rossiter worked at the Herald from 1985 to 2015 and Ian martens still works there,” Fox said.
Ian and David were really helpful clarifying the history and telling the stories,” she said.
Guest curator Tess McNaughton was intrigued by the progression of photojournalism from analogue to digital, so also highlighted two digital era photojournalists with panels highlighting Ose Irete and Alejandra Pulido-Guzman’s work as multi-media journalists.
Fox and McNaughton were both impressed with how much work goes into the actual process of photo-journalism.
“Especially in the analogue era, where Photoshop didn’t exist and you had to be right there at the moment to get the shot. it was all about timing,” Fox said, indicating an Orville Brunelle photograph of a local politician getting electrocuted by an improperly grounded microphone.
“ We hope people will look critically at how photo-journalism has transitioned,” Fox said.
“ It looks at how people take snapshots. This exhibit really complements the time periods. People can take as many as they want with digital camera rather than being restricted by a film roll,” McNaughton said
Extra! Extra! Eras of Photojournalism in Lethbridge is on display now at the Galt Museum until Aug. 4.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor
