Newfoundland Explored

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views
of Canada, 1880–1914.

This book of approximately 45 photographs is much too romantic to
warrant the “explored” part of its title. The photographs, though
excellent of their kind, are too predictable; some even look as if they
were posed for the camera. There is no “exploration” here. There is
nothing to show us the trying times through which Newfoundlanders have
recently come; there is very little of the people themselves or of the
harshness of both landscape and lifestyle that makes Newfoundland the
distinctive place it is.

Instead we are offered the usual shots of lighthouses bathed in golden
sunsets, fishermen (or at least one fisherman) looking as if they were
happy even though there are no more fish to be caught, the
all-too-familiar scene of the vari-colored houses of St. John’s (taken
from the South Side), the gorgeous pitcher plant, the puffin, some
picturesque outports, and similar roseate views. This is merely a
personal, partial view of Newfoundland—with a very bad introduction.
To explore means “to inquire into, to investigate,” and the camera
can do that as effectively

as (and sometimes more effectively than) the pen. It is unfortunate that
this book, so elegantly presented, does not go beyond the clichéd
images so often seen on postcards and calendars.