This is a catalogue of an exhibition of photographs taken from 1993 to 2000 by William Eakin, one of Canada’s most original photographers, held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, September 28, 2000 to January 7, 2001, and includes an essay by James Patten and bibliographical references.  With photographs from six series, including two bodies of work that had not been exhibited as of 2000, this publication provides a mid-career survey of William Eakin’s work.

William Eakin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1952. He studied at the Vancouver School of Art (1971-74) and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1974-75). He has taught at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, and The University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia. He has also served as a Fine Arts Advisor for the Sanavik Co-op in Baker Lake, Nunavut.

Through his images of abandoned objects from everyday life, William Eakin makes compelling links between the past and the present. Evoking a range of feelings from pathos to humour, these photographs have the uncanny ability to situate personal memories within a broader context of shared experience.

William Eakin’s photographs reveal how people use, exchange and transform an array of common objects in their daily lives. Through his practice of collecting, categorizing and photographing objects in a series, Eakin participates in these acts oof exchange and transformation. The discreet, performative aspect of his practice, moving through unofficial repositories of material culture, is as important as the photographs themselves. Eakin’s work questions contemporary conventions of consumption and production while diffusing the auteur statues of the photographer/ artist. This confluence of art and the everyday subserts both spheres of activity by blurring the distinctions between what are often referred to as high and low culture.

Published by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2000, Paperback

English, Colour Photos

ISBN 08891520041

72 Pages

Curator: James Patten