FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
Call of the Wild
Northern Mountie Always Got His Man (And Woman)... With A Camera
by Mark WaltonA Portrait of the Yukon - The Photography of Sergeant Claude Tidd
Until August 31
at the GlenbowWhen I spent time in the Yukon in the '80s, I met all sorts of eccentrics, characters and drifters. It seemed to be a place where people were either searching for something or running away from something.
Claude Tidd was an adventurous soul, a Mountie and an avid amateur photographer who worked and lived in almost every corner of the territory between 1915 and 1946.
Included in A Portrait of the Yukon - which consists of images culled from Tidd's private collection - are a couple of genuine photographic gems. For instance, his view of sunlight pouring into a log church piled high with Thanksgiving offerings of bunches of flowers and vegetables. For the most part, though, it's not Tidd's artistic skill that holds our attention, but his homespun documentation of rugged individuals like Margaret Black Fox or "Apple Jimmy" Oglow, a wheeler dealer who would roll the dice, double or nothing, on every transaction in his riverfront store.
A favorite of mine is "Professor Dine's Orchestra, Dawson City 1925," featuring Tidd on saxophone in one of his many self-portraits.
Amateur shutterbugs have played a pivotal role in the history of photography and although Tidd is no Lartigue, he provides rare glimpses of this vast untrammeled Canadian territory - especially after marrying American nurse Mary Ryder-Tidd in 1924. You get the feeling from photos, such as the one of them sharing Christmas pudding, that they enjoyed a close egalitarian relationship not unlike what couples seek out today.
After he left the RCMP Tidd was, among other things, a purser on a sternwheeler and a struggling writer. The final shot in the series features the ship the Tidds sailed to England on in 1946.
Situated next to the fur trade and First Nations' displays on the third floor, A Portrait of the Yukon makes a pleasant side trip for anyone investigating the extensive Canadian Cowboy exhibits at The Glenbow this summer.
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