Tourists at Niagara Falls

Photo-collage with graphite drawing on Stonehenge rag paper

This 30 ft wide, 4 ft high photo-collage with drawing was first exhibited at the Photography Gallery at  Harbourfront,  Toronto in 1988, long before the ubiquitous presence of the ever recording Smart Phone.  The work explores issues surrounding the relationship between tourism, photography, and the creation of memory, identity, and a personal mythology taking place at one of Canada's most iconic touristic attractions, Niagara Falls, Ontario.

 In a pre-Photoshop world, I printed, cut and matched up a large number of my photographs taken of tourists at Niagara Falls and at Walt Disney World in Florida, and glued them to a heavy  Stonehenge rag paper.  Pencil drawing was used to fill in the spaces and  meld all  of the disparate images into one believable panorama.