Early Years |
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The earliest Hammond photographs at the Archives of Ontario
are glass plate negatives, taken by him in 1896. In 1904, he
appears to have switched to a more portable camera using a lighter
plastic-based negative. Hammond continued to work with glass
into the 1910’s, mainly for creating portraits. He also
produced approximately 250 glass lantern slides, most likely
to use in illustrated talks.
Hammond may have initially been drawn to photography because
he recognized its utility as a journalistic tool, but his early
images of pastoral scenes suggest that he saw the potential
of photography as a means of artistic expression. | |
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Man launching boat, 1896
M. O. Hammond
Glass plate negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0017223 |
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Style |
While he could never be considered an experimental photographer,
his work encompasses a wide range of styles. Hammond appeared
to be comfortable moving from straight documentary photography,
to classic portraiture, to a more artistic or “pictorial
“ style, depending upon his mood or what the situation required.
Like many amateur photographers of his day, Hammond explored
the stylistic trend known as pictorialism.
Pictorialism was an early 20th century movement which subscribed
to the idea that photography should emulate painting or etching.
By employing filters, careful composition, the controlled use
of light, and special printing techniques, photographers were
able to create images with a more atmospheric or painterly effect.
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Miss Pretty, Ile d'Orleans, August 1926
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario , I0001616 |
Early in his career, he did not totally
accept pictorialism. While in New York City in 1908, he visited
the Photo-Secession studio to see an exhibit by the celebrated
pictorialist, Edouard Steichen, and noted:
“I
went first to the store of the Lumiere people and saw splendid
samples of color photography…Then to the Photo Secession
studio at 291 Fifth Ave. There I saw a lot of photos by
Edouard Steichen, they are broad and impressionistic and
in some cases, I think ridiculously so. Met Alfred Steiglitz
who is associated with the movement…He talks like
a rebel in his in his relations to orthodox photography
and seems determined to pursue his propaganda for the broadening
of style in photography. “
March, 1908 |
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A few years later, however, when he won a prize for his photograph of Mr. Hambourg and
Ms. Galloway at the Piano, he wrote:
“My
Sunday afternoon quiet was broken by a phone message from
J. W. Beatty that he had been one of the judges at the
Camera Club Salon today and that I had been awarded the
bronze medal! This sure was big news, and a fitting recognition
of a lot of study and thought I have put into my pictorial
photography recently. I was very well pleased.“
March 17, 1912 |
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Professor Hambourg & Eva Galloway, February 1912
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0014493 |
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People net fishing, Fisherville, April 1908
Fisherville (Ont.)
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0000706 |
Hammond was very much a traditionalist
in his appreciation of art and photography. In spite of his consistent
promotion of Canadian art and artists in his Globe articles, he
didn’t always like what some of his contemporaries were
painting. In a review of the Group of Seven show at the Art Gallery
of Toronto in 1921, he wrote:
“Much
of the work is very broad and much too impressionistic;
mostly they fail to render rock to look better than stage
scenery, and there are multiples of ugliness that weary
one. “
May 22, 1921 |
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He was much more attracted
to the classical European style of painting, such as the work
of his good friend Horatio Walker who achieved great success painting
scenes of peasant life in rural Quebec.
Many of Hammond’s photographs, particularly those taken
in Quebec, embody certain romantic notions of the past; the peasant
working in the fields, quaint villages, and pastoral countryside.
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Knowlton's Landing, Memphramagog, Quebec, 1928
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0001711
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Anger house (battle site), Ridgeway, October 5, 1926
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0001641 |
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