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Photographic Exhibit Showcases Historic 1978 Royal Tour
Photographic Exhibit Showcases Historic 1978 Royal Tour
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
It is said that photography has the power to freeze a moment in time, immortalizing people, places, and events for the learning and pleasure of future generations. While that is true, it also applies to current generations, as illustrated in the exhibit of the historic 1978 Royal tour captured by photographer Orest Semchishen that is currently on display in the Basilian Fathers Museum in Mundare courtesy of Kyler Zeleny.
Zeleny is a photographer, educator and author. Born in 1988, Zeleny grew up in Mundare. Similarly, Semchishen was born in 1932 in Mundare.
A radiologist by training, Semchishen was an avid and accomplished photographer. According to the exhibit statement, “In the 1960s, he (Semchishen) turned that same probing eye toward the Alberta landscape, communities, and cultures. Over the following decades, he would become one of the Canadian prairies’ most prolific and poignant documentary photographers—a chronicler of lives lived on the edges of cities, of abandoned churches, and of stories left behind.
Among the thousands of photographs Semchishen took, a small but historic set stands out: those captured during Queen Elizabeth II’s 1978 visit to Alberta. The tour, meant to celebrate the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, took the Queen across the province by train, stopping in communities such as Peace River, St. Paul, Lamont, Chipman, and Mundare. These images of the royal visit—shot in Vegreville—offer a rare glimpse of ceremony and spectacle colliding with small-town prairie life. In these frames, we see more than the Crown’s presence—we see the people who gathered, the settings they stood in, and the Alberta that met the Queen.”
The exhibit which opened this summer, is aptly titled, Orest Semchishen: A Presence of Prairie. Basilian Fathers Museum Curator Karen Lemiski explained that Zeleny had purchased the collection of Semchishen’s photos from the Royal tour in a public auction in 2024, and he asked Lemiski if she’d be interested in displaying them in the museum. Her reaction to the offer was “absolutely” as “they are important to be in this area and with them going for auction they could have gone anywhere…If they had ended up in a private collection, they would have been lost whereas we had people coming this summer that recognized people, that commented or remembered being there. As a museum that’s what we want. We want something to engage our visitors.”
The collection includes 25 photographs. Complimenting the photographs are artifacts in three side showcases. Lemiski noted, “The commemorative china pieces (on loan from a private collection), and event programs and Canadian Pacific poster (from the museum’s archives) were from previous royal visits to Canada. The third showcase had military items, marking the 80th anniversary of VE day.”
The exhibition statement also included these sentiments: “In showing Semchishen’s work we celebrate not only his artistic contributions but the land and people who shaped his eye. The exhibition’s reappearance is a poignant reminder of the fragility of cultural memory and the importance of preserving visual histories. His photographs are not only a record—they are a reckoning.
The Basilian Fathers Museum expressed gratitude to Kyler Zeleny for the generous loaning of this collection.”
According to Zeleny’s biographical information, “he holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Alberta, a master’s in Photography and Urban Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a PhD from the joint Communication & Culture program at Toronto Metropolitan University and York University. His work has been exhibited internationally in twelve countries and featured in numerous publications, including The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, The Washington Post, VICE, Maclean’s, and The Independent. He now lives a prairie-based life.”
Basilian Fathers Museum Curator Karen Lemiski, far left, directs visitors during a tour on Sept. 26. The group of seniors, 42 in total, are from the community of Millet. (Michelle Pinon/Photo)
