1
THE MAGICIAN
Hannah Maynard 1834-1918
Born in England, Hannah Hatherly married Richard Maynard at 18 and moved to Bowmanville, Ontario. While Richard travelled around Canada as a prospector, Hannah learned photography. When the family moved to Victoria, British Columbia, she set up her own business as, “Mrs. R. Maynard, Photographic Artist and Dealer in All Kinds of Photographic Materials.” By 1880, Victoria’s growing tourist trade enabled Maynard to move into a larger studio and hire an apprentice. In 1897, she became Victoria’s official police photographer. Anyone arrested was taken to her studio for a mug shot. Besides operating a successful business and raising five children, Maynard experimented with her medium in a way that was not only creatively ahead of her time, but technically superior to the work of her contemporaries. Her signature works include photomontages, multiple exposures, and photosculptures. Her multiple exposures and montage images were revolutionary. She used various techniques to create new kinds of images. Her photomontages sometimes involved thousands of images. Maynard created The Gems of British Columbia series annually between 1881 and 1895. She made the final image into a New Year’s greeting card, sending it to all the mothers of the children she had photographed in the preceding year. She carefully cut out each portrait, pasted them together, and re-photographed the result on glass. To make a photosculpture, Maynard covered her subject with white powder and black cloth, took a picture, and then superimposed it onto an image of a papier mâché bust or figure. Maynard used mirrors and partial glass negative exposures to create unique narratives about herself and surreal tributes to the deceased.
Left page; F-02852; Top: F-05084; Bottom left: F-05957; Bottom right: F-02851. All courtesy of the Royal BC Museum and Archives.
PhotoEd • 11
