Foote note #6

So the University of Manitoba Press does banners for the entry page of its website.

The banners are advertisements for the current season's books, one per book.

It's hard work, boiling down a book to a postcard-sized square, something that will entice visitors to the site to check out that particular book.

Since the summer, it's been my job to create them.

Like Cheryl Miki (UMP's Sales & Marketing Supervisor) before me, I usually use images from the photo sections of the books or, if a book doesn't have a photo section, something that plays off a related visual concept.

Doing a banner for this blog was difficult in that there were SO MANY CHOICES even just considering the photos we've used ON this blog, nevermind the hundreds of images we have scanned for use in the book.

But this photo has stuck with me. There's something about the faces of these babies, how very raw they are, knowing that they're probably dead and gone by now...so I thought I'd try it.

(Which I suppose makes it MY Favourite Foote Photo.)

Having recently watched Jeff McKay's documentary on Foote, I appreciated how he zoomed in on the photos, so I thought I'd use a detail instead of the entire photo. And although you have to be careful with hand-writing fonts, I've been looking at Foote signatures on photos for weeks and WEEKS now and thought it was an interesting element to include.

Ariel Gordon
UMP Promotions/Editorial Assistant

Foote notes #5

We were contacted last week by one of the retired firefighters that runs the Fire Fighters Museum of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

In his message, George mentioned that they had some Foote photos in their archive and that we were welcome to come visit and rifle through the thousands of photographs they had in their collection.

UMP director David Carr and I made a trip to the museum first thing this morning.

"Rule 86, boys..." George said, when he led us past the group of retired firemen sitting over coffee in the museum's kitchen. Which apparently means 'no swearing.'

And as George was giving us a tour of former fire station's framed pictures, restored apparatus, and uniforms, again I saw a Foote I'd never seen before.

Make that a couple of surprising Footes.

The first was a portrait of the members of the 1910 City of Winnipeg Fire Department. Producing this image would have involved dozens of studio portraits, someone to create the template to set the images in, and someone to assemble the entire puzzle.

I would have doubted that it was a Foote...but there was a version of his signature in the left-hand corner.

George said that this image used to hang in every fire station in the city and that the Fire Fighters Museum had three in their archive.

The other surprise of the day wasn't around format but subject: Foote photos of 'volunteer' firemen from the Committee of 1,000 during the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.

We found three photos in this sequence, mostly of suited men in raincoats perched on apparatus. They look like little boys playing dress-up, like they're having a great adventure, but I wonder what their faces would have looked like if they'd had to attend a fire?

But I digress...

To sum, in addition to the differently-sized photos we've been seeing, now we know there are collage/composite group photos (what do you even call these things?)...and postcards (!)(more on that in the next edition of Foote notes).

The rule of thumb, identification-wise, remains the same: look for a signature on the photo itself, a stamp on the back, or his embossed signature on the matting that surrounds the image.

Ariel Gordon
UMP Promotions/Editorial Assistant

Foote notes #4

My sole exposure to L.B. Foote's photos is via the prints at the Archives of Manitoba. To refresh your memory, these are the prints that Foote had in his possession when he died...and they're all 8" X 10" prints.

A few weeks ago, I was able to spend a few hours digging through the Winnipeg Free Press' photo archives with staff photographer Michael Deal and the resident librarians.

In addition to the photos the librarians located for us, we also unearthed a few more photos...and they were all 8" X 10" prints.

None of the images, to my recollection, were taken in a studio. The standard line is that Foote was more interested in shooting anything and everything out in the world than staying the studio and doing portraits.

Remember, Foote had a sales background before he ever picked up a camera.

Foote was the consummate freelancer, a hustler, which is reflected in the range of his subjects and of his clients: from news photography for the Winnipeg Free Press to crime scene photos for the Medical Examiner's Office, to documentary photos for Claydon Brothers Construction.

So you can imagine my shock when, in response to UMP's appeal for Foote photos, we started to see differently-sized images, some of which were clearly shot in a studio.

I've included a sample of these images here, described from top left and then moving clockwise:

Nancy Gates brought in this large image of King Edward VIII at Delta Marsh. The image is approximately 18 1/2" X 14" and is glued to a larger piece of cardboard, which was then framed. I won't say much more about this image, because I'll be doing a Found Foote Photo entry on it, but it is interesting to note that while the picture was shot in 1919, this print wasn't made until 1936...

Marjorie Dawson brought in a photo, shot circa 1912, of her father Oscar John Gottfred in a bike race. The image, 8" X 6 1/8", is glued on a matte frame with a logo reading "L.B. Foote 284 Main Street" to the bottom right. In addition, the photo itself has "Foote Photo" written on the left hand corner.

The third image is courtesy of June Sanderson, whose father is somewhere in the picture, taken some time in the 1920s. It is a long narrow image, 9 1/2" X 5 1/8" in size, and is glued on an plain grey board.

There is no logo or stamp, but the photo has "Foote Photo" in the left hand corner. Interestingly, though it is a different hand, the the placement is the same as the earlier picture of Oscar Gottfred. (You'll remember from Foote notes #1 that it is much more common to see Foote's 'signature' on the right hand side...)

Finally, Vicki Wallace emailed a studio picture of her maternal grandfather, George Edward Boxshall, and his family taken circa 1923. Given that the image was sent via email, I don't know it's precise dimensions, but the photo is in an ornate grey matte frame that includes the text: "Foote and James Winnipeg."

To sum, three weeks ago, I would have sworn up and down that a typical Foote photo was 8" X 10", but clearly if you were a private individual buying a copy of a group photo or commissioning one of your family, Foote gave you a lot of options...

* * *

Thanks to everyone that's shared their images with us! Please don't hesitate to contact us if you've got Foote photos in your private collections...

Ariel Gordon
UMP Promotions/Editorial Assistant

Foote notes #3

In my previous posts on identifying Foote photos, I was blithering on about Foote's ledgers, so I thought I'd share a few images of them.

UMP director David Carr and I visited the Manitoba Archives back in November and donned surgical gloves in order to look at Foote's ledgers, diaries, clippings...and, of course, the filing cabinets full of his photographs.

(Winnipeg Free Press photographer Mike Deal accompanied us and took a few photographs of the ledgers, which he's let us use...)

Though we just leafed through the ledgers randomly, we were able to find the entry for one of the photos we've posted to this blog, of a nurse holding three swaddled babies.

The Archives attached the following description to the photo: "Major Mrs. Louise Payne with triplets, 1916." In their numbering system, it is officially described as "n2489."

Foote described it as "Triplet at Grace Hospital" and while it somewhat unclear in this particular entry, it seems to occupy the space between 5915 and 5916 in the ledger.

Finally, the photo itself has numbers inscribed on the image's top left. They seem to be backwards...and don't seem to correspond with the ledger number. (5-816?)

It was highly interesting to see Foote's filing system, such as it may be. (Can you imagine keeping track of fifty years' worth of photographs? I can't.)

Ariel Gordon
UMP Promotions/Editorial Assistant

Foote notes #2

So you've got a photo you're convinced is by L.B. Foote. But it doesn't have his signature, identifying numbers, or stamp (as was described in the first edition of Foote Notes).

If you have the original envelope the photo came in, check to see if there's an invoice or any other documentation.

Foote had different letterhead over the five decades that he was photographing Winnipeg (and invoicing Winnipeggers for same...) and so included with this post is an sample from his Foote & James years and also something mid-career.

Finally, he also sometimes issued a type-written page detailing the photos he took with a ink signature at the bottom, so we're including that here too.

Ariel Gordon
UMP Promotions/Editorial Assistant

Foote notes #1

So you think you might have a photograph by L.B. Foote but you're not sure...

Well, Foote photos have a few defining characteristics.

First of all, the word "Foote" appears in white on many of his photos, usually to the right hand side with a series of numbers on the left. Though sometimes this signature of sorts appears on the left hand side or in other high-contrast areas of the photograph.

Here are examples of some of his signatures.

You'll note that one of the photo details I've included here says "Foote & James." Those are from early in Foote's career, when he was in business with George James, who apparently did most of the printing.

Also worth noting is that later photos sometimes include a longer signature. For instance, a series of images from V.E. Day 1945 included this signature: "May 7, 1945. L.B. Foote Photo."

Other ways of telling if you have a Foote photo is that he sometimes stamped the back of his prints with the following information: "L.B. Foote 492 Gertrude Ave. Telephone 41968"

If your photo has none of these markings but you're convinced that it's a Foote photo, it is also possible to check the photo against the hand-written ledgers that Foote kept, detailing his clients and a brief description of each photo's subject matter.

The ledgers are at the Archives of Manitoba and do not cover Foote's entire career but...they're better than nothing, especially when you're trying to identify a photograph.

Ariel Gordon
UMP Promotions/Editorial Assistant