Art Exhibits

Since 1920, the company of B. Giesler & Sons Ltd. supplied hundreds of wooden boats to Northern Ontario and beyond. Before the move and demolition of existing buildings of the old Giesler Boat Works in Powassan, friends of Gooderham, Jim Forsyth and Terry Lang, arranged to visit the boat works.

 

“There was a palpable atmosphere of time, it was like walking into the past. Light and shadows everywhere, it was like capturing a piece of history and stepping back in time.”

After the trip to Gieslers and editing the work, Gooderham realized how historically important it is. In the 1920s the grandfather of Gerry Giesler had built a fishing boat for himself and when he took it to Lake Nipissing to launch it, he was met by American tourists who offered to buy the boat from him. Apparently, he went to build another boat, but had another order before the boat was even finished, and so the boat building business began. In the 1930s with the hype of Quintmania and thousands of tourists passing the shop that was situated on Main Steet in Powassan, popularity spiked. Business peaked in the 1950s with almost 600 vessels being built each year.

Gooderham loves exploring history and creating dynamic works, his appreciate of light and angles and shapes made the Giesler Boat Works an intriguing environment to shoot in. For this show he has used a technique called HDR (high dynamic range) to create a feel, a look, and a creative edge to his work. He used a Nikon D300 digital camera on a tripod and 2 lenses, a Sigma 10~20 f 3.5 wide angle lens and a Sigma 70~200 f 2.8 telephoto lens. Gooderham took approximately three to five bracketed exposures to make use of the HDR process.

 

He had started photography back in high school but gave it up after college when work and life became busy. He re-discovered it later in life and in 2000 was reunited with his love for photography, taking courses and workshops at Canadore College before also graduating from the New York Institute of Photography. He is both a landscape and portrait photographer.

 

From Gooderham’s artist statement:

“I am a photographer, I see light, angles and shapes. The landscape and night are my canvas, light my paint, the camera is my brush... Imagination limitless! My goal is to find a unique and beautiful wilderness image and to photograph it. common to all of my work is the interplay of light, angles, and shapes, look closer, move in, and focus. When I photograph people, I see their eyes, their face, their mood; to capture the spirit of the country in the eyes of someone who lives here, that is completion.”

He grew up on Lake Temagami, living and then working at historic Camp Chimo and in 1973 the lake became his permanent home. He is passionate about the people that make up the living history of Lake Temagami. Through his Elders Portrait Project, he has compiled a collection of portraits of the elders that make up the First Nations community, and the Seasonal and Permanent residents of the lake. Gooderham is also passionate about the architectural features of bridges, buildings, and abandoned locations as a part of local northern history. “My appreciation for the Northern landscape began in early life and the ever-changing elements of land, water, ice, clouds, and sun continue to be main subjects of my work, the landscape, flora and fauna are always in focus – it is my passion.” Gerrys work can be seen on Facebook, Instagram and his main website https://gooderham.photoshelter.com/index

 

Join us on Saturday July 19th to celebrate the opening of “B. Giesler & Sons Ltd: A Discovery”. The show will remain on display until Saturday August 16th. The operating hours for the Museum and Art Gallery are Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 – 5:00pm. We are located at 107 Lansdowne St. E. in Callander in the same building as the Callander Bay Heritage Museum. Please find us on Facebook for more information (@callandermuseum), phone us at 705-752-2282 or email us at museum@callander.ca. We hope to see you there!