Title: Photographer Frank Royal (1909-1975) holding a camera
PHOTOGRAPHER: Uknown
National Archives of Canada, negative no. PA-112372

During the early months of 1979, the National Photography Collection prepared an important presentation of the works of the photographer Frank Royal. The forty-four photographs which made up the exhibition provides compelling and stark portraits of the environment of the different regions in North America where he worked : Canada's east coast, the Prairies and the Rocky Mountains.

Born in 1909, Frank Royal became a photographer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Winnipeg Free Press. He joined the Armed Forces in 1940 and went to Canadian Military Headquarters in England as a Photographer.

After the war, he joined the National Film Board of Canada. Among his most famous photographs were those of the world champion figure skater Barbara Ann Scott in mid-flight. In 1953, he became director of technical services of Gevaert Canada Ltd. Later, during his fifteen years with Walter Carveth Ltd, he travelled widely and spoke often to groups of professional and amateur photographers across the country. He died in 1975.

According to Royal, " To see - not merely to look - is an act of perception that involves the mind as well as the eye. To photograph is to express this philosophy through the photographic process..."