Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Ronnie Tessler fonds
General material designation
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Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Fonds
Reference code
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
1,463 photographs : b&w negatives ; 35 mm
160 photographs : b&w prints ; 26 x 21 cm and 13 x 18 cm
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
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Numbering within publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Ronnie Evelyn Tessler was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1944 and has resided in Vancouver, B.C. since 1968. She attended the University of Manitoba, the Manitoba Institute of Technology, the Emily Carr College of Art and Design, the University of Victoria, and Simon Fraser University, where she received a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies in 2006. Tessler became a documentary photographer in 1973, working on various photographic projects and exhibiting her work in Canada and the United States until 1990. Her artwork resides in a number of public collections, including the National Archives of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. In 1990, Tessler became the first executive director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, and was instrumental in its development into a fully-staffed facility with a museum, archives, and education and resource centre. Since 1996, she has worked as an independent project consultant and editor for cultural arts groups in B.C.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of photographs created by Ronnie Tessler between 1986 and 1987 documenting a canoe project by Nisga’a carver Norman Tait. The project was abandoned in the summer of 1987, and the canoe was left uncompleted. The photographs depict models for the canoe, transportation of the log for the canoe to the Museum of Anthropology, ceremonies performed throughout the project, and various stages of work on the canoe and model. Additional photographs from this period depict a totem pole-raising ceremony at Capilano Mall in North Vancouver, as well as portraits of Les Baker, a model Tait wanted to use for a “white man” mask. The fonds is arranged into a single series: Norman Tait canoe project and related materials.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Items were donated by Ronnie Tessler in 2008.
Arrangement
Negatives and contact sheets have been kept in their original order. Proof prints have been interfiled with their corresponding negatives and contact sheets.
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
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Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
The annotations on the verso of the 13 x 18 cm prints were added by the creator. The numbering system was devised by the creator and indicates the frame and negative from which the print was made.
Accompanying material
Appendix 1: Project Description prepared by Ronnie Tessler for the Tait Canoe Project (1986), Vancouver, BC, 27 August 2008
Rights
Copyright transferred to MOA by Tessler.