A Full Catalogue and Analysis of Photographs and Photogravures by Robert J. Flaherty at the Art Gallery of Ontario

This thesis is based on a photographic collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario that comprise fifty-one photographs and photogravures by the filmmaker and photographer, Robert J. Flaherty (1884-1951). The objects consist of three groups: twenty-three photographs and nineteen photogravures of northern Arctic scenes and portraits; two presently unattributed photographs of northern scenes that are associated with Flaherty's work of the north; and seven portraits of Canadian artists Frances Loring (1887-1968) and Florence Wyle (1881-1968) taken in Toronto, Ontario. All the photographs were taken between 1910 and 1921; the photogravures were published in 1922, in portfolios titled, Camera Studies of the Far North. This thesis has five components: a biography of Flaherty, literature review of what is presently known about Flaherty and his photography, a brief description of Flaherty's photographs in public institutions, a full catalogue of the fifty-one objects, which is fully illustrated and includes comparative illustrations of related objects examined at the Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa, and an analysis of three photographs from each of the Flaherty groupings at AGO, primarily based on the research from the catalogue.