Conrich

This photograph is printed using a black and white process in which the negative is laid over the gel emulsion of silver nitrate which reacts to UV light and produces an image.

It depicts a rural scene in Alberta, populated by grain elevators and train tracks leading into the horizon. The title of the artwork refers to the hamlet of Conrich which started as a flag station for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway; passengers wanting to board had to flag the train down.

The landscape shown was a typical sight on the prairies. The vernacular picture captures the essence of everyday rural life in towns like Conrich and represents a lifestyle that is rapidly disappearing to make way for economic development.

Documentation of this way of life is important for the preservation of our culture and heritage. Social documentary photography has a long tradition with roots in the 19^th Century work of Henry Mayhew, Jacob Riis, and Lewis Hine, but was popularized by the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression and photographers like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. Since the seventies, social documentary photography has become increasingly more accepted by the art world alongside fine art photography.