CANADA.
Photographic Documentary.
When we first picked up this volume it struck us as a unique find, anything Nova Scotia being rare enough. But we did not realize just how it was unique until a second look revealed what amounts to a photographic love letter. In this trim full volume, Sherman Hines, a celebrated and award-winning Canadian photographer, covered the seaside city he called home using a classic form: letting each photograph tell a specific part of an overall story. Hines’s collection proceeds like chapters in a book. It showcases modern life in the provincial capital, c. 1980s, with attention given to the change of seasons. But this modern focus reveals the full surround of Halifax history, from its start as an important naval outpost for the English starting in mid eighteenth-century, its mix of German religious settlers and serving as a haven for English loyalists during and following the American Revolution, its obvious attachment to maritime commerce and the fishing industries, on up to the island’s important role in the development of the identity of Canada—within the British Empire and as an independent nation. Modest in character, if ancient (by North American European standards), one gets the sense through Hines’s lens that Halifax, specifically, and Nova Scotia, generally, constitutes a place that is quite comfortable in its own skin. The wide range of street vendors, residents on lunch breaks, parks along the waterfront filled during the warmer months, its historic parades, its many landmarks (Citadel Hill, King’s College, the Harrington House, but a few), multiple views of the city after snowfall including a few during Holiday festivities, all of this surrounded by reminders of the port city’s reason for being: its relationship to the sea—shipping terminals, shipyards, shipbuilding, fishing vessels, sailing vessels, yacht races, etc.—all of this amounts to a story told thoroughly with loving intent. In the photographer’s own words: “We tend to mark judgements about the places and friendships that we find in each. I hope that you will feel some of the joy and affection I have for this city of Halifax …” [Condition: Used Very Good. The dustjacket shows the shelf wear typical of a book many decades old and also shows several petrified squares of what we guess were stubbornly sticky price tags removed long ago. Aside from the hardcover’s front lower corner having been bent, likely having been dropped, and very minor spine wear on its top and bottom, the interior of this fantastic collection of color photographs is pristine.]
Condition: Used Very Good.
Travel / Touring.
Sherman Hines.
Nimbus Publishing Limited, 1988 (original © 1985).
Oversized Hardcover, 10.75 x 8.75”, 78 pgs / 1.5 lb
