January 15, 2025

New Arrival: Geoffrey James Canadian Photographs

We are excited to announce Geoffrey James’s new book Canadian Photographs is now available at TrépanierBaer.

A raw look at Canada, renowned photographer Geoffrey James directs his gaze to the in-between spaces and forgotten places that resist the idea of a cohesive national identity. With an equable eye, James documents the ephemeral and the monumental: a demolition derby in Québec, how an inmate at Kingston Penitentiary has decorated his cell, the Dickensian side door of Massey Hall in Toronto. The photographs in this collection celebrate the everyday while meditating on the issues James’s adopted home faces: the bifurcation of rural and urban, rapid growth and increasing inequality, and its journey toward truth and reconciliation. Linked by views taken from train windows from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, James’s unofficial portrait of Canada brings into sharp relief the unfinished business of the nation as it lurches into the next century.

Canadian Photographs includes a conversation between the photographer and Peter Galassi, former Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art.

“Splendid. This monumentally intimate collection journeys into the diverse soul of the nation. Moments of wit and affection contrast with an austere and formal observation of the human desire to settle, celebrate, and survive. A joyous and inspired book full of moments that are oddly resonant and deeply moving.”
– Atom Egoyan

Stay tuned for more from Geoffrey James, as a selection of works from Canadian Photographs will be featured in an exhibition alongside Han Sungpil and Vikky Alexander this February for the 2025 Exposure Photography Festival.

Image Credit:
Geoffrey James
Canadian Photographs, 2024
Figure 1 Publishing