Phil Bergerson: A Retrospective

About

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. Bergersons 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 Universitys 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 Gallerys 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 Schools annual publication of student work essays and interviews. Between 2005 and 2010 he served as the Chair of Ryersons School of Image Arts. He also taught in Ryersons 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 (292000 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 RICs 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 Ryersons collection managements program (FPPCM) and for over 20 years was the Coordinator of Ryersons Photography Workshop in France. Upon retirement in 2014 the RICs 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. Burleys works have been exhibited around the globe and can be found in museum collections including the National Gallery of Canada Musée de lElysée 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.