Lost Foote Photos blog got an award!

THIS JUST IN: The Lost Foote Photos blog and Jock Lehr's Community and Frontier were among seven projects recognized by the Association for Manitoba Archives.

The Manitoba Day Award was established in 2007 to recognize users of archives who have completed an original work of excellence which contributes to the understanding and celebration of Manitoba history. 

The awards ceremony was last week at the Western Canadian Aviation Museum. 

Thanks to the AMA and to everyone who contributed to the blog!

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(clockwise from top left): Bruce Owen, Ariel Gordon, Jock Lehr, Matt Henderson, Martin Comeau, Barb Flemington, Bernard Bocquel, and one of Matt Henderson's SJR students; Jock Lehr at the mic; Chris Kotecki of the Manitoba Archives; and the very well wrapped award.

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The winners of the 7th annual Manitoba Day Awards include:

• John C. Lehr for the publication Community and Frontier: A Ukrainian Settlement in the Canadian Parkland published by the University of Manitoba Press, 2011.
• Shannon Stunden Bower for the publication Wet Prairie – People, Land and Water in Agricultural Manitoba published by the UBC, 2011.
• Matt Henderson – teacher at St. John’s Ravenscourt School for the project conducted by his grade 11 students in which they created original works of short historical fiction about the development of the Red River settlement between 1738 and 1869 for inclusion in a published book Because of a Hat. These were done based on research done on a visit to the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives. The book was launched at McNally Robinson in Feb 2013.
• Bernard Bocquel for the book « Les Fidèles à Riel 125 ans d’évolution de l’Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph du Manitoba Un récit journalistique (Matière à réflexion) » which was published at the Les Éditions de La Fourche in 2012.
• Bruce Owen for his article “Mayhem Under Main” published in the Winnipeg Free Press Oct 6, 2012. See http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/mayhem-under-main-172936311.html
• University of Manitoba Press for the blog “Lost Foote Photos” http://lostfootephotos.blogspot.ca created in support of the publication “Imagining Winnipeg: History Through the Photographs of L.B. Foote.
• Barb Flemington for the art exhibit translate, executed upon 100 year old chalkboard slate paired with archival photographs from the S.J. McKee Archives and mounted at the Tommy McLeod Curve Gallery in the John E. Robbins Library, Brandon University. Available to view at http://barbflemington.ca/?p=277

 

Imagining Winnipeg at the MBAs

Imagining Winnipeg was nominated for four awards at Manitoba Book Awards, held April 28 at the West End Cultural Centre.

2013 is the 25th anniversary of the awards, which awards thirteen prizes in a variety of categories.

Here are share the judges’ comments for the four categories in which Imagining Winnipeg was nominated.

Best Illustrated Book of the Year Award – WINNER 
“Foote’s images of our city are clear and very well reproduced. The carefully selected photographs replicate the sensibility of a magnificently curated art-show.” – Brian Mlazgar, Natalie Olsen, Paul Tetrault.

The Best Illustrated Book of the Year Award is presented to a Manitoba publisher, designer and illustrator for the book deemed to have the best use of illustrations, including drawings, paintings, photographs, and other artwork. Entries are judged on artistic merit, innovation of form, quality of production values and appropriateness to the intended market.

Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award – NOMINEE 
“Winnipeg’s rich history would be lost without photographers like L.B. Foote, whose book gives evidence that this city is more than just concrete and steel. University of Manitoba history professor Esyllt W. Jones dove head first into over 2,500 photographs at the Manitoba Archives and brought together 150 images that capture the way Foote saw Winnipeg. They highlight the people, places, and events that shaped the city into becoming a prairie metropolis. History has a way of being forgotten, but books like Imagining Winnipeg give it a new life.” – Rick Brignall, Helen Norrie, Krista Strang.

The Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award was created to honour books written in English or French that contribute to the appreciation and understanding of life in Winnipeg. The award is sponsored by the City of Winnipeg.
 
Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher – NOMINEE
“No need to imagine Winnipeg with these fascinating and beautiful black-and-white photos! Esyllt W. Jones’ collection of L.B. Foote’s photography brings the boom years of Winnipeg to life, capturing subjects from all walks of life and covering major events in Manitoba and Canada’s history. The book’s design lets the photographs speak for themselves, with large glossy images that seem vivid without colour. Uncovering lost Foote images and sharing through social media brought this photographer to a wider audience, which he well deserves.” – Stephanie Furrow, Amber Goldie, David Lawrence.

Sponsored by Friesen, the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher is presented to the best book published, in either English or French, for the trade, bookstore, educational, specialty, academic or scholarly market.

McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award – NOMINEE 
“Imagining Winnipeg offers us a way of re-imagining not only Winnipeg the history of Canada in the first half of the twentieth century. Beautifully curated by Esyllt W. Jones, this collection presents the work of photographer L.B. Foote in all its mastery and idiosyncrasy. The eclectic subjects of the photographs – the social and political pressures of the 1930s, strikes and union issues, Native life and its representation, diverse cultural identity and relations – brings many aspects of Canadian history back into conversation in new ways. Jones’ insightful introduction establishes the cultural and aesthetic context for Foote’s photographs and asks us ‘to risk a move into unknown territory, beyond the firm ground of well-trod historical narratives,’ so as to look at the history presented within these pages, as well as – by extension – our own time period, in a new ligh
t.” – Jake MacDonald, Susan Musgrave, Johanna Skibsrud.

The McNally Robinson Book of the Year is the book judged as the best written in English by a Manitoba author.

For the rest of the winners and nominees, see the Manitoba Writers' Guild website.