Calgary photographer George Webber has been nominated for a National Magazine Award for his photo essay The Last Days of the St. Louis which was published in SWERVE.The mandate of the National Magazine Awards is "to recognize excellence in content and creation of Canadian magazines" The award winners will be announced in Toronto on June 15.
In the May, 2007 edition of PhotoLife, you will find a profile on internationally acclaimed photographer, George Webber, with photos from his books People of the Blood and A World Within which says " "like compressed coal slowly turning into diamonds, Webber's photographs are increasingly precious because they record the people and places that otherwise continue to be erased by the merciless march of time."
In the Spring, 2007 issue of Prairie Books Now, under "A Legacy of Aboriginal Books" you will see an interview with Webber in which he explains how his motivation springs from a place of respect and authenticity, "That whole notion of entering into another life and that person allowing you to enter - it's not an intimacy based on a history, it's based on someone's intuitive take on you. That's very powerful."
People of the Blood
George Webber
The Blood Reserve is a land of wind, prairie, mountains, and rivers, a land of dramatic physical beauty. It is the setting for George Webber's stunning collection of black-and-white photographs, People of the Blood. From the spring of 1992 until the late summer of 2005,Webber journeyed to the reserve from his home in Calgary, documenting his experiences on film and with pen and paper. People of the Blood is an intimate and compelling story of the reserve's people and stark, sweeping landscape told in black and white.
In his quest to photograph and document hope and darkness in the western Canadian landscape, Webber has ceaselessly photographed the people, small communities, and the land for a quarter century. People of the Blood documents a photographic journey spanning over a decade, one that put Webber in contact with the strong people of the Blood, their spiritual practices, their hopes, their challenges, wins and losses.
http://www.fitzhenry.ca/detail.aspx?ID=9586
Click here to see People of the Blood – An Animated Presentation.
Reviews: "A profound, challenging book that follows in the footsteps of his previous documentary masterpiece, A World Within: An Intimate Portrait of the Little Bow Hutterite Community. There is no one who brings a calmer eye, a more respectful gaze or a more open heart to his subject matter than Calgary's Webber." - Swerve magazine, Calgary Herald
George Webber is an award winning Albertan photographer. His work reveals his deep fascination and affection for the people and the landscape of the Canadian West. Webber was born in the western Canadian town of Drumheller, Alberta, in 1952. Since the early 1980s he has photographed this region extensively. His photographs are included in museum collections the world over and have been published in numerous prestigious books and magazines. George lives in Calgary where he works as a freelance photographer and photgraphy instructor at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. In 2005 George was the only North American photographer to win an award for documentary photography in Seoul, South Korea.
To find out more about George visit his website at http://www.georgewebber.ca/.
