Portrait of Calgary

Kathy E. Zimon is a fine arts librarian (emerita) at the University of
Calgary. She is the author of Alberta Society of Artists: The First 70
Years and coeditor of Art Documentation Bulletin of the Art Libraries
Society of North America.

In 56 pages of glossy color, photographer Andrew Bradley, a Calgarian
since 1996, has vividly documented his adopted city. Except for a
half-page introduction, the entire book consists of competent,
professional photographs, albeit of predictable subjects: on the cover,
downtown office buildings crowding the Calgary Tower, framed by the
distinctive concave roof of the Saddledome; inside, views looking up at
the tower and down from it; the Olympic Plaza with old City Hall next to
the mirrored Municipal Building; tyrannosaurus rex from the prehistoric
park at the Calgary Zoo; First Nations chiefs and the Stampede Queen on
horseback; a bird’s-eye view of the rodeo at the Calgary Stampede; a
1900s streetscape from Heritage Park; the ski-jump towers at Canada
Olympic Park; and the Olympic Oval skating rink. There are shots of
hot-air balloons, public sculpture, the Centre Street Bridge, and the
LRT (Light Rapid Transit). And more views of the modern highrise city:
looking to the east at sunrise, west toward the Rockies at sunset, and
glittering with lights at night. The last few pages lead out of the city
to the foothills and the Rockies.

It is a tourist’s view of Calgary and not unlike half a dozen other
picture books for visitors. What else might have been included? The
magic of a glowering Chinook arch; the painstakingly restored facades of
heritage buildings on Stephen Avenue Mall; the ring of newly minted
suburbs crowning the hills to the north and west; and just for fun, the
Las Vegas–style Egyptian lobby of the movie theatres at Chinook Centre
Mall. Notwithstanding such quibbles, Portrait of Calgary is a credible
likeness, and one could do worse than buy a book whose publisher claims
to “plant two trees for every tree used in the production of this
book.”