Donovan spent his career as a small-town photographer in eastern Ontario at a time when photographers were a mainstay of most communities. He started as an itinerant tintype photographer travelling by wagon to photograph in a tent at country fairs before partnering and then owning and operating his own studio for more than a quarter century. What sets Donovan apart from his contemporaries is the quality of his work. The Archives of Ontario salvaged a selection of his badly damaged plates in the 1970s and, even in contrast to modern prints, they are dramatically lit, richly textured, and economically composed.

Image: Duncan Donovan, Untitled, July 1907, Nor’Westers and Loyalist Museum, Williamstown.

For further reading, see:

Harper, Jennifer. City Work at Country Prices: The Portrait Photographs of Duncan Donovan. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1977.