I was at the Leica Store LA a couple of days ago, checking out the M10, and I happened on this interesting book by Canadian free-lance writer Thelma Fayle. Ted Grant - 60 Years of Legendary Photojournalism is a celebration of the life's work of probably the best known and most influential photojournalist in Canada. Ted has been a featured speaker at many Leica seminars and gatherings around the world, as well as a highly respected collegiate-level teacher of photojournalism. He has published photographs in a wide range of genres including hard news, portraits, sports, photo essays, documentary (especially in the field of medicine) and candids of political and other public figures. Grant has been a vital recorder of the lived experiences of Canadians from every social strata and every walk of life. On December 8, 2011, the Leica Camera blog published a feature on him, entitled: Dr. Ted Grant: A Canadian National Treasure.
I confess that my knowledge of Canadian photography was limited to the work of Ottawa portraitist Yousuf Karsh. It was high time my narrow view of photography "up north" was broadened, and this book is an excellent promontory from which to gaze over the world of Canadian photojournalism as practiced in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Ms Fayle has interviewed many of Ted Grant's colleagues and subjects, and Grant contributed to the book textually as well as photographically. The result is a book which could reasonably be assigned reading in a class on photojournalism. Throughout are many descriptions of Grant's method of working, and particularly his approach to candid reportage, where the naturalness of the subject is paramount.
Thelma Fayle's Ted Grant - 60 Years of Legendary Photojournalism was published in paperback in 2014 by Heritage House (Canada). It is available on Amazon at $29.95.
|