GEORGE HUNTER - BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

1921: Born in Regina, SK. Family moved to Winnipeg during dust bowl days of 1934.

1937: Represented high school at Coronation of King George VI and Elizabeth in London. Bought first camera. Used magic lantern to give illustrated lectures.

1939: Photographed King and Queen during Winnipeg visit. Sold prints through Eatons.

1940:  Delved into photography with mentors Nick Morant, CPR  & Harry Rowed, CNR.

1941-1942:  Worked for two Winnipeg photo engraving firms using 8”x10” view cameras.

1943-1945:    Two years as press photographer with Winnipeg Tribune. Learned never to return to the office without photo requested by editor, no matter what the circumstances.  

1945-1950:   Five years as stills photographer with National Film Board of Canada. Criss-crossed Canada continuously, documenting country for promoting Canada abroad. Highlights  - winter (Muskox) and summer (Nascopie) trips to Canadian High Arctic, 1946. Was Canada’s official photographer to the UN at Lake Success, N.Y., 1947-1948.

1948-1949:    Trained for pilot’s license at Ottawa, Winnipeg and Lethbridge flying clubs and at Waverly, NS for float endorsement.

1950:    Commenced own business. Purchased Piper Clipper aircraft for transportation. Modified door to open in flight for low-level photography.

1951:  Visited each community along Mackenzie River, include Tuktoyaktuk, landing on gravel bars along the river, due to lack of landing strips.

1951-1956:  Carried out four major colour picture spreads for Time magazine, including largest ever published, ‘The US After Dark’ (12 pages in US edition). Only photographer ever proclaimed with three Publisher’s Letters.  For the night shots, learned how to stall plane in flight for short time exposures.

1955:   Produced images for American Airlines calendar, the most prestigious and sought-after assignment in the United States.

1957-1962:   Leased a Cessna 180 aircraft for greater speed in cross-country travel. Modified door to open out under wing for aerial photography.

1965:   Had a highway coach built and modified for ten years of cross-country travel. Hydraulically operated 25’ ladder mounted on roof for high-angle shots. 

1967:  Most productive year with photography supplied to four pavilions at Montreal World Fair (Canadian, Western Canada, Ontario and Quebec).

1950-2000:   Specialized in location assignments for corporate and governmental clients in the petro-chemical, mining, forest products, manufacturing and travel industries.  Coast-to-coast travels averaged at least two per year and assignments were also carried out for Canadian, American and UK clients in well over one hundred countries, on all continents except Antarctica.

1972:   Supplied two images to Bank of Canada for Canadian currency - the $5 (salmon seiner) and $10 bill (petro-chemical plant) - in circulation through 1988.

1976:   Supplied only Canadian image (Pearson Airport Terminal) for Voyager II mission to deep space.

1977:   George Hunter was one of the first photographers to be inducted into the prestigious Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

1996:   Photo of Quebec children won 2^nd prize (among 27,000 entries) in competition relating to Québec culture: “Regards du Québec”.

2000:  Honoured with 12-projector a/v presentation displayed on 30-foot-wide screen   and synchronized to live performance of Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, playing to full house.         

 2001:   Honoured by Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators with Lifetime Achievement Award.

Exhibitions:

1960-1980:  B.W. print exhibitions produced for corporate clients for display in hotel and bank lobbies across Canada, include: Place Ville Marie, Montreal, First Canadian Place, Toronto, RBC Toronto and Calgary and Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto.       

1972:  NFB mounted a summer-long eighty-print show (largest ever) “People of Many Lands” with images from fifty countries. Prints ranged up to 40”x60” in size.

1984-2000:  Bell Canada permanent exhibition in Trinity Square, Toronto, office tower with 40 (40”x 40”) chromogenic prints with theme, “Our Bell Canada employees of today are the Bell Canada pioneers of tomorrow”.

2005:   May 28 – July 24:  Las Vegas Art Museum, Las Vegas, NV. :  “ Inuit of Canada’s High Arctic”, 1946 – and  “George Hunter’s Canada Half a Century Ago.”

2005:   June 9 – Dec. 31 - Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife:  75 -print exhibition:  “Not Only Gold” - gold/uranium mining in NWT in the1950s.

2006:   Winter 2006-2007 edition of Imperial Oil Review  - eight-page feature article on George Hunter with 16 photographs and wrap-around cover image.

2006:   Feb. 14 – Mar. 19  “Inuit of the High Arctic” Stonefish Gallery, Calgary, AB.

2006:  April 6 – May 21: “George Hunter’s Canada: 1945-1955” Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, ON:  Major exhibition of 103 b.w.  fine art prints representing each of Canada’s ten provinces and three territories.

2007:  May 25–July 8:  “George Hunter’s Canada: 1945-1955” The Grimsby Public Art Gallery with 103 b.w. prints, as above.

2007:  The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, and QC appraised two George Hunter fine-art prints, one at $12,000 and the other at $10,000. 

2008:  McCord Museum in Montreal appraised a donation of 9– 14”x 17” & 47– 8”x 10”  prints of Quebec heritage images at $88,000.

2008:   Reader’s Digest July 2008 edition:  feature article on G.H. with five images incl.  a double-page spread.  

2009:   Oct. 18 – Jan. 10, 2010  “Views of the North” with 12 Hunter Inuit images at the  Confederation at Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, PEI.                   

GALLERIES WITH GH PRINTS IN THEIR PERMANENT PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS