George Webber
Calgary, Alberta
ARTIST BIO
George Webber’s artful photographs spring from his affection for the people and culture of the Canadian West. His books include: Borrowed Time, Saskatchewan Book, Alberta Book, Badlands, Prairie Gothic, In this Place, Last Call, People of The Blood, A World Within and Requiem.
George’s photographs are included in many Canadian and international museum collections.
In 1999 he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in recognition of his contributions to the visual arts in Canada.
PROJECT STATEMENT
Boys, Neudorf, Saskatchewan, 1993
I had photographed a group of boys along a rail line in Neudorf, Saskatchewan in the Summer of 1993. Just as I was finishing up, I noticed a young first nations boy approached from the left. He watched us intently, taking everything piecing it together. If he knew the other boys he didn’t show it. There was an invisible boundary between him and the other boys and he was keenly aware of it. He stepped to the edge of the boundary, unaware that he was within the view of the wide-angle lens. Then he knelt silently on the gravel rail bed.
Thorvald Skaalid and his daughter Margaret Anne, Macrorie, Saskatchewan, 1993
I met widower Thorvald Skaalid standing on his front porch. Thorvald had immigrated to Canada from Norway and farmed near the little tiny south-western Saskatchewan village of Macrorie. Several years earlier he and his family had moved into the village where he then worked as a blacksmith.
Mr. and Mrs. Chew, New Dayton, Alberta, 1988
Charlie first arrived in Canada in 1913 where he worked as a cook in British Columbia. Later he and his father built a café in the dusty southern Alberta hamlet of New Dayton. It was destroyed by fire in 1922 but rebuilt shortly after. In 1930 Charlie returned to China and wed Lee Chun. Charlie and his wife were blessed with a daughter and soon after were expecting a second child.
In 1931 Charlie returned to New Dayton planning to send for his young family as soon as possible. But restrictions on Asian immigration and financial hardship prevented this from happening.
It wasn’t until 1986 that Lee Chun left China to re-unite with her husband in New Dayton. Fifty-five years had passed since their last embrace.
