Images from the Likeness House

On a winter's day in 1889, Tsimshian Chief Arthur Wellington Clah went to Hannah and Richard Maynard's photography studio in Victoria "to give myself likeness." In Images from the Likeness House, Dan Savard explores the relationship between First Peoples in British Columbia, Alaska and Washington and the photographers who made images of them from the late 1850s to the 1920s. He gives examples of the great technological advancements that took place, from wet-glass-plate to nitrate-film negatives, showing the images in their original state, not cropped, corrected or retouched. This is not only an important book about photography, but also a visual statement about perception (and misperception), cultural change and survival. Images from the Likeness House will appeal to ethnographers, photographers, art lovers and anyone interested in the history of BC, Alaska and Washington.