Faking Death: Canadian Art Photography and the Canadian Imagination

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

Penny Cousineau-Levine is an associate professor of photographic arts in
Concordia University’s Department of Studio Arts. At one point, both
she and her students “had absolutely no sense of the significance of
the [photographic] products of their own people.” Faking Death, “an
appreciation of the richness of Canadian photography,” is intended to
offset “the noise” of non-Canadian versions of photographic history
that have been inundating the Canadian scene.

The book is divided into four major parts. The two chapters in Part 1
define the author’s approach to the study of photography in a Canadian
setting and provide an overview of the traditions of European and
American photography. Part 2 debates whether the Canadian tradition is
predominantly documentary in nature (death and dying, as portrayed by
Canadian art photographers, is central to this discussion). Part 3
elaborates on the earlier concerns about such themes, while Part 4
focuses on the photographic geography of the underworld. Most of the
book’s pictorial examples are starkly black and white, although there
are several stunning full-colour reproductions.

This insightful, well-written study is highly recommended for novice or
professional photographers and readers interested in the aesthetics of
Canadian photography.