Collection 0001 - Orest Semchishen photograph collection

Zone du titre et de la mention de responsabilité

Titre propre

Orest Semchishen photograph collection

Dénomination générale des documents

  • Document iconographique

Titre parallèle

Compléments du titre

Mentions de responsabilité du titre

Notes du titre

Niveau de description

Collection

Cote

CA BMUFA 0001

Zone de l'édition

Mention d'édition

Mentions de responsabilité relatives à l'édition

Zone des précisions relatives à la catégorie de documents

Mention d'échelle (cartographique)

Mention de projection (cartographique)

Mention des coordonnées (cartographiques)

Mention d'échelle (architecturale)

Juridiction responsable et dénomination (philatélique)

Zone des dates de production

Date(s)

  • 1970s - 1980s (Production)
    Producteur
    Semchishen, Orest

Zone de description matérielle

Description matérielle

103 photographs: 82 - 11x14, 21 - 8x10 black & white gelatine silver prints

Zone de la collection

Titre propre de la collection

Titres parallèles de la collection

Compléments du titre de la collection

Mention de responsabilité relative à la collection

Numérotation à l'intérieur de la collection

Note sur la collection

Zone de la description archivistique

Nom du producteur

(born 1932)

Notice biographique

Orest Semchishen is widely recognized as one of Canada’s finest documentary photographers. He is best known for his photographs of Byzantine churches in rural areas of Alberta of which this collection is comprised.

Orest Semchishen was born at Mundare, Alberta in 1932). A radiologist by profession, Semchishen took up photography initially as a hobby. In the early 1970s, after taking University of Alberta extension classes, he turned to documentary work and since that time has continued to work in the classic documentary tradition. Probably the most important influence on his work is the American photographer Walker Evans, although Semchishen's vision has its own distinct personality and the wide-ranging scope of his work and its comprehensiveness recalls the achievement of the great French photographer Eugène Atget.

Beginning with a survey of Alberta's Byzantine rite churches that were a part of his Ukrainian heritage, Semchishen's oeuvre has expanded to encompass rural communities, city business districts and markets, ethnic groups, fur trappers and prairie farms. In the process he has developed an increasingly sophisticated vision and technique: his prints are marvels of brilliance and tonal balance. He has compiled an extraordinary record of Canadian life, centered on the Prairies but extending across the country. Semchishen no longer produces his photographic work making this collection even more valuable.

A resident of Edmonton, Orest Semchishen's works are represented in public collections including those of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Art Gallery of Alberta, The Glenbow Alberta Institute and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, located in the nation's capital, is Canada's only federal institution devoted solely to the collection, exhibition and promotion of the photographic medium. As such, it is the country's foremost advocate of artistic and documentary photography.

Historique de la conservation

Portée et contenu

Collection consists of photographs depicting Byzantine rite churches in rural Alberta.

Zone des notes

État de conservation

Source immédiate d'acquisition

Donated by the artist

Classement

Langue des documents

    Écriture des documents

      Localisation des originaux

      Disponibilité d'autres formats

      Photographs have been digitized.

      Restrictions d'accès

      Orest Semchishen retains copyright for commercial use.
      Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives owns copyright for research, display, teaching use.

      Délais d'utilisation, de reproduction et de publication

      Instruments de recherche

      List of photographs with their title, date and location is available.

      Éléments associés

      Negatives of his photographs are in the National Archives of Canada.

      Éléments associés

      Accroissements

      Documents complémentaires

      A publication "Through Alberta Eyes: the photographs of Orest Semchishen" by Gordon Snyder is available at the BMUFA library: UF2013.43.b1, call number: TR 647 S46 A4 2005

      Identifiant(s) alternatif(s)

      Numéro normalisé

      Numéro normalisé

      UF2011.061

      Mots-clés

      Mots-clés - Lieux

      Mots-clés - Noms

      Mots-clés - Genre

      Zone du contrôle

      Identifiant de la description du document

      Identifiant du service d'archives

      Règles ou conventions

      Statut

      Niveau de détail

      Dates de production, de révision et de suppression

      Langue de la description

        Langage d'écriture de la description

          Sources

          Zone des entrées