Artist
Curator
Exhibition Dates
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Neal Carter, The Summit of Cathedral, April 15, 1920. silver gelatin prints mounted on black construction paper with coloured pen drawings, 35.56 x 25.4 cm, Courtesy of MONOVA: Archives of North Vancouver
Neal Carter, Lynn Peaks, January 29, 1922, silver gelatin prints mounted on black construction paper with coloured pen drawings, 35.56 x 25.4 cm, Courtesy of MONOVA: Archives of North Vancouver
Neal Carter, The Camel, May 01–24, 1921, silver gelatin prints mounted on black construction paper with coloured pen drawings, 35.56 x 25.4 cm, Courtesy of MONOVA: Archives of North Vancouver
Neal Carter, The Summit of Cathedral, April 15, 1920. silver gelatin prints mounted on black construction paper with coloured pen drawings, 35.56 x 25.4 cm, Courtesy of MONOVA: Archives of North Vancouver
Neal Carter, Lynn Peaks, January 29, 1922, silver gelatin prints mounted on black construction paper with coloured pen drawings, 35.56 x 25.4 cm, Courtesy of MONOVA: Archives of North Vancouver
Neal Carter, The Camel, May 01–24, 1921, silver gelatin prints mounted on black construction paper with coloured pen drawings, 35.56 x 25.4 cm, Courtesy of MONOVA: Archives of North Vancouver
Selected
Between Science and the Sublime: Neal Carter’s 1920s Mountaineering Photography Albums Neal Marshall Carter
This exhibition explores the mountaineering tradition of creating personal photography albums. These albums adhere to the principles of the Alpine Club of Canada, specifically the promotion of scientific study and the exploration of Canadian alpine and glacial regions, as well as the cultivation of art in relation to mountain scenery.
MONOVA: Archives of North Vancouver are the custodians of three meticulously documented and decorated photography albums created circa 1920 by mountaineer and marine biologist, Neal Carter, PhD. The albums demonstrate the ways in which mountaineers integrated photography into their expeditions, and how they combined technology, aesthetics, and sport to express a unique alpine culture. The albums include views of North Shore mountains taken during ascents with British Columbia Mountaineering Club (BCMC) members. Unlike traditional archival practices of separating photographic prints from albums for preservation purposes, these albums are intact, and each page has been digitized to secure the contextual relationships between the annotations and the images. From hand-pasted panoramic views of mountain ranges to the abstraction of scale between climber and glacier, these albums demonstrate the role of the camera in twentieth century exploration for the spiritual in the physical landscape. With new interest in the impact of our industrialized culture on nature, including climate change, the photographic albums of mountaineers are gaining greater importance for their historical evidence of the evolving environment. Neal Carter’s photographic albums allow the viewer to re-evaluate early mountaineering photography and investigate new ways of experiencing and visualizing landscapes in an interdisciplinary context.
MONOVA has online resources for this exhibition for those unable to attend in person with new features being added April 2021.
The physical exhibition will be on view at the Archives building in Lynn Valley for the entire month of April 2021. It is open FREE to the public by appointment. Bookings can be made here: https://monova.ca/archives/ with hours remaining the same.
Contact information for the exhibition is: [email protected] and 604-990-3700 ex.8012
