John de Visser At The Art Gallery of Northumberland

By Peg McCarthy, Northumberland News

Photo by Ted Amsden

A gift of 100 photographs to the Art Gallery of Northumberland has blossomed into a one-man show for a local and nationally-acclaimed photographer.

A selection of work by John de Visser currently hangs in the gallery, located on the third floor of Victoria Hall. Unframed, large, beautifully-composed, colour-saturated prints, made from transparencies and inter-negs, are a testament to the wholesomeness of Canada and the natural beauty of other parts of the globe.

The prints include Saskatchewan grain elevators, Muskoka cottages and lakes, race horses, and gardens, along with tranquil scenic shots of Holland and Europe.

"They came out rather well," said Mr. de Visser, 79, who is happy with the selection made by curator Dorette Carter.

He's heard good comments about the exhibit, which represents a tiny corner of his work.

The oldest of 10 children, Mr. de Visser came to Canada 57 years ago, having served his two years in the Dutch army. He worked as a bank teller, and a shipper at the Benjamin Moore paint factory. Visiting Niagara Falls with friends, he shot two frames on their roll of film and got it developed.

The owner of the photo shop asked who had taken those two frames, which he said were the best he'd ever seen of the falls, and talked de Visser into purchasing a camera. Without formal training, these were the humble beginnings of Mr. de Visser's thriving and productive career in photography.

At his wife's suggestion (to offset his mounting film and processing costs), he presented his work on Toronto to Maclean's magazine. It was not only snapped up for "a year's wage", but became a 16-page colour spread that won awards for the magazine and work for Mr. de Visser. It wasn't long before he packed in his day job.

"It was total luck, along with devotion and ambition," he said now.

Membership in the Toronto Camera Club honed his skills.

"I belonged to a small clique of photographers who got sent all over the place at a magazine's expense."

And photographers were allowed to maintain ownership of their images.

By the time Masterfile Photo Stock agency was created, Mr. de Visser had literally thousands of marketable images. He was their biggest seller and still markets through them. Now he's sitting on literally thousands and thousands of unorganized negatives and slides, which he hopes one day will be archived in Ottawa. With 65 books to his credit, most set in Canada, and a history of high-end magazine work, he can look back on his career and call the opportunities good chances to do a lot of interesting things.

Coffee table books on Muskoka are among his favourites, mostly for their financial rewards, but the book he remembers most is his first, which was made in collaboration with Farley Mowat. He calls it a lament for a way of life that no longer exists. Set in the old fishing villages on Newfoundland's south coast in the winter months, it chronicles in words and black and white photos the last leg of the life of the cod fishermen, struggling to make ends meet under the thumb of the plant owners.

'This Rock was in the Sea' has been printed three times and sold over 30,000 copies.

Never needing a studio and seldom using flash, most of Mr. de Visser's work was done out-of-doors. He prefers morning or evening shooting, but said with a tripod, he can make pictures using any kind of light. Recently, he succumbed to the digital format, but for most of his career used 35 mm and shot transparencies, the standard for magazine and coffee table book reproduction.

"I don't want to spend hours in front of a computer - in fact, I don't even own one."

Mr. de Visser will talk about his work on Saturday, July 18, at 7 p.m., in the Art Gallery of Northumberland. For more information, call 905-372-0003.