Phil Bergerson : A Retrospective

A retrospective of Phil Bergerson’s career. The first section’s, extensive essay addresses his student days, early teaching and organizing years and his various photographic projects (1967-1989). The second part deals with Bergerson’s pursuit of the human condition found within the American Social landscape. It begins with an historically contextualizing essay, followed by a sequence created from selections from Bergerson’s first two books on America. This is followed by Bergerson’s most recent photographs accompanied by a critical essay.

Phil Bergerson has photographed for over 50 years. His work has been exhibited internationally and is found in many prestigious collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, the Shadai Gallery, Tokyo Japan, the Harry Ransom Center, Austin Texas, and the Creative Center for Photography, Tucson, Arizona. His photographs have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Toronto Life and Walrus Magazine, and his book, Shards of America was published in September 2004 to rave reviews. Since 1972, Bergerson has been a Professor of Photography at Ryerson University in Toronto where he established and organized the influential, International Kodak Lecture Series on photography. He also organized the first International Symposium on Photographic Theory as well as Canadian Perspectives, a National Conference on Photography in Canada. Throughout his career, he also arranged several group photographic study trips to Europe and Asia. His last book was American Artifacts (2014), with introductory essays by Margaret Atwood and Nathan Lyons. Bergerson’s entire personal archive has just been acquired by the Library and Archive Canada, in Ottawa. Now Professor Emeritus, he continues to work on Representations of American Cultural Artifacts. He is represented In North America by the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.

Don Snyder studied photography with Walker Evans at Yale University and with Minor White in the graduate program at MIT. Before joining Ryerson University’s faculty, he held an appointment as the first Curator of Photography at the Addison Gallery of American Art in the US, where he established the Gallery’s photography exhibition program. He has written on photographic history and criticism for a number of periodicals, has edited four books and curated more than sixty exhibitions in Canada and the US, and has held appointments at SUNY Buffalo and Bennington College. At Ryerson, he established the Ryerson Gallery at 80 Spadina, an exhibition space in the downtown arts district, and was instrumental in the founding of Function, the School’s annual publication of student work, essays and interviews. Between 2005 and 2010, he served as the Chair of Ryerson’s School of Image Arts. He also taught in Ryerson’s graduate programs in Communication and Culture, Photographic Preservation and Collections Management, and the Documentary Media MFA program.

Peter Higdon studied photography with David Heath and Art History with Ian Wallace. He is the Founding Collections Curator of the Ryerson Image Centre, (RIC), Ryerson University, Toronto. Over a period of thirty-six years, he drove the expansion of its photographs collection through numerous acquisitions, among them the Black Star Collection of photojournalism (292,000 prints). Funding accompanying this major donation allowed commencement of a long- sought building project that yielded museum-standard exhibition spaces and a research centre incorporating a print storage vault. He was also instrumental in the RIC’s acquisition of the Berenice Abbott Archive. While building the collection, his work with the Department of Canadian Heritage required extensive written contextual justification and many detailed artist biographies. For 10 years, he was consultant to the graduate students in Ryerson’s collection managements program, (FPPCM), and for over 20 years was the Coordinator of Ryerson’s Photography Workshop in France. Upon retirement in 2014, the RIC’s Research Centre was named in his honour, and an annual graduate scholarship established in his name.

Robert Burley is an artist working in photo-based media whose practice explores the built environment, history and visual studies. His past projects have received widespread recognition through numerous grants, awards and media coverage. Burley’s works have been exhibited around the globe and can be found in museum collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Musée de l’Elysée, George Eastman Museum, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and Musée Niepce. His recent books include: The Disappearance of Darkness (Princeton Architectural Press 2012)and An Enduring Wilderness (ECW Press 2017). Burley has lectured about his photographic projects through the Rouse Visiting Artist Program at Harvard University and the Senior Mellon Fellowship Program at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. In addition to his activities as an artist, Burley has undertaken many initiatives as an educator with the goal of expanding resources and curricula at Ryerson University where has currently holds the position of Professor in the School of Image Arts. These include his role as founding Program Director of the MA program in Film & Photographic Preservation, his work to establish and expand collections in The Ryerson Image Centre and Special Collections – Ryerson Library, and the management of numerous cultural programs such the Kodak Lectures and The Ryerson Gallery.