Exhibitions

The Other NFB: The National Film Board of Canada’s Still Photography Division, 1941-1971

February 27 - May 7, 2017

Few Canadians know that during a pivotal period in Canadian history, the NFB functioned as the country’s official photographer.

The NFB’s Still Division photographers travelled across Canada, making images that were reproduced in newspapers, magazines, books, filmstrips, and exhibitions.

The Other NFB looks at how this agency imagined Canada and its identity, what role photographs played in that imagining, and how the photographic archive has been used.

The NFB aspired not just to present an image of the country, but the image. As a result, the NFB is unique in the history of Canadian visual culture as a conveyor of governmental values and programs in photographic form.