The Family Camera exhibit at Royal Ontario Museum explores what’s fundamental about family

Ellen Montague and her son Christopher; her sister Ruth Brown; and her husband Spurgeon Montague beside the Christmas tree. Unknown photographer, Windsor, ON. Gelatin silver print, December 25th, 1961, 8.9 cm x 8.8 cm. Courtesy of Dr. Kenneth Montague. Source: Webpage at ROM website devoted to The Family Camera exhibit

The following overview is from the May 2017 newsletter of The Photographic Historical Society of Canada; I have also learned about this exhibit listening to CBC Metro Morning; the Photographic Historical Society of Canada message reads:

What do all families have in common? How do families nurture relationships, cultivate individual identities and maintain ties, even through the challenge of separation? The Family Camera exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, considers these questions and more, inviting viewers to explore what’s fundamental and meaningful about family.

Photographs grouped by theme help to reveal how caring, courage and pulling together are expressed in a multiplicity of practices and cultures. The anxiety of migration is one of the more somber themes, while the Niagara Falls wall mischievously shows us how standard this destination is in the lives of most North American families.

The exhibit also investigates the technology instrumental in helping families compile personal histories. Before the phone-slash-camera era, an ever-evolving choice of economical consumer cameras made preserving special moments possible. The idea of the family album may be shared by all but the Family Camera exhibit offers a window on how photography creates our collective notion of belonging, inspiring our search for bonding, kinship and ancestry.

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Click here ti access ROM webpage about The Family Camera Exhibit >

Update

A June 19, 2017 WBUR article is entitled: “Tackling The Challenge Of Museum Design In The 21st Century.”