Light on the water

Light on the Water presents a choice collection of over 120 captivating black-and-white historic photographs of boats, ships and people along the coast of British Columbia from the late 1850s to the 1940s. As Keith McLaren points out, we are fortunate that the growing popularity of photography developed at the same time as European settlement of the coast. These early photographers left a legacy of superb images of intriguing and diverse subjects: sailing ships in storms, a pensive young girl at a launching, a fisherman baiting hooks, the luxurious interiors of Empress liners, gold seekers on the deck of a steamer, crowds waving good-bye to a troopship going off to war.