University of Guelph Library
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Click here to return to the University of Guelph Library's webpage on Reuben Sallows and his photographic work. R.R. Sallows Landscape and Portrait Photographer © by S. Lynn Campbell
Before World War I rural Ontario was in many respects, very different than today; devoid of telephone and hydro lines, paved roads and automobiles, tractors and combines, and all the other technological developments which were to transform the countryside over the next few decades. It is possible, though, to reconstruct this world, at least partially through the study of the works of Reuben Sallows. He was a Goderich photographer who devoted a great deal of his life and professional career to photographing rural Ontario. His work can be found in the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food's historical photograph collection, the National Photographic Archives, the Photographic Conservancy of Canada's collection, as well as several private collections. Looking at his work today, one can see how it was affected by the period in which he was working, specifically the demands of popular taste and to a lesser extent, the influence of the pictorial movement. Sallows' work too, was influenced by the requirements of commercial assignments for most of these photographs of rural Ontario were taken for commercial purposes--for sale to governments, railways and other parties interested in promoting rural Ontario. Sallows' rural photographs, therefore, represent as much what these clients wanted Ontario to be seen as and not necessarily what it was. This essay will concentrate on the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food's Sallows collection. Numbering about one hundred and fifty individual items, this collection is almost entirely made up of photographs of rural Ontario. The original part of the collection [1] consisted of one hundred and fifty-eight contact prints (6 x 8 inches) presumably made from glass plate negatives.[2] The origin of this collection is somewhat of a mystery. In 1964 a box containing these photographs was found in the President's safe when the three colleges at Guelph (the Ontario Agricultural College, the Ontario Veterinary College, and Macdonald Institute) were merged to form the University of Guelph.[3] Each of the photographs in the box were stamped on the R.R. Sallows Landscape and Portrait Photographer. How and why they were originally placed in the safe is not known.[4] Recognizing the potential of this collection, Ministry officials traced Sallows to Goderich, Ontario and secured the reproduction rights for these photographs from the Sallows family Sallows' career in photography began in 1876. A native of Huron County, born 1855 and raised on a farm, he struck out looking for a job in the county seat of Goderich. The first job offered to him was as a travelling representative for a Goderich photographer, R.R. Thompson, canvassing the countryside for enlargements of photographs.[5] In 1878 Sallows was offered and accepted a three year apprenticeship with the same photographer[6] who subsequently sold him the entire business, lock, stock and negatives in 1881.[7] Sallows' career probably closely paralleled that of any other small-town photographer of the late nineteenth century, at least at first. Photography was very popular at this time. In 1881 there were five photographic galleries in Huron county alone and 103 in the province as a whole.[8] Most early photographers, and Sallows was no exception, specialized in formal portraits, shot in elaborate studio settings.[9] Additional income was generated by selling stereoscopic views of the local area, carte de visites, portraits of local groups and organizations, and even photographs of famous people. Sallows pursued all of these usual lines of the trade [10] and more. There appears to be a distinctly entrepreneurial aspect to Sallows' career which is evident very early. In 1888 for example, he introduced flash light[11] portraits to the Goderich area, shortly after the technology was available.[12] Sallows, in 1889, also toured the countryside with the world renowned Pamphengos Dissolving View Apparatus[13] and in 1895, hired a new assistant and began to offer art courses at his studio.[14] Another area that Sallows moved into was rural scenes. As early as 1884 he was advertising that he did homestead photographs.[15] The late nineteenth century was a period of great technical and scientific innovation in photography as well as stylistic change.[16] Sallows boasted that he was one of these fellows who keeps abreast of the times.[17] Undoubtedly he did this by subscribing to trade publications such as the Philadelphia Photographer, for a letter appears from him in this publication in l887.[18] Moreover, Sallows was very active in professional organizations. He was a member of the Huron Photographers' Association as early as 1883[19] and later an active member of the Canadian Photographers' Association. In 1897 he captured four prizes at their annual convention in London, Ontario.[20] Sallows dated the change in his career to Civic Holiday Weekend, 1897 for it was at this time that he moved into the world of commercial photography.[21] At a nearby summer resort, Sallows took a picture of his daughter and another little girl gazing out at Lake Huron (see Illustration # 1/NB: not available for viewing). Sallows sold this photograph to a number of publications including a Rochester firm, the Buffalo Express, the Toronto Globe,[22] and the St. Louis and Canadian Photographer.[23] Encouraged by this initial success, he prepared a portfolio of pretty domestic scenes[24] and sent them to an American publication called the Inland Printer, a printing trades journal published in Chicago.[25] Sallows described his reaction to this event as follows: I sent them twelve prints. Tens of these were accepted; the others were returned along with the glad tidings -- a cheque for $ 50. Sixty dollars a dozen. For the same work at home my regular customers were paying me $6 per dozen. This was the first money I had ever received for any commercial work and it certainly woke me up.[26] Sallows' commercial career took off after this initial success. His pictures of domestic scenes, pictures of rural life, views of nature in her wildest and loveliest moods, hunting, fishing, boating, camping and outdoor pastimes[27] appeared in numerous publications all over North America, and indeed the world.[28] Included among the customers for whom he did specific assignments were the two major railways in Canada (the Grand Trunk - later C.N., and the C.P.R.), the Ontario government, and the federal Department of Immigration.[29] On their behalf he travelled widely in Ontario, Quebec, and the Prairie provinces.[30] Many of his photographs, though, particularly his rural scenes and landscapes, were taken in and around Huron County.[31] Sallows' studio in Goderich remained open all through his career with his assistants doing most of the work when he was out of town on assignments.[32] By the late teens, however, Sallows had ceased to travel extensively on photographic assignments and restricted himself to publishing a few photographs in magazines[33] and pursuing local work. At the time of his death in 1937, the eighty-two year old Sallows was on his way to photograph a school camp.[34] In his lifetime, Sallows' work was widely heralded. For example, the title of a 1909 article on him in Busy Man' Magazine was entitled Canada's Photographic Genius.[35] In many respects this success and praise is a reflection of Sallows' commercial success, which in turn reflected his ability to cater to popular tastes. In the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food's Sallows' collection are numerous shots which reflect the popular taste of the period. These pictures which might best be described as "kid and dog shots or as Lily Koltun terms them in Private Realms of Light, staid genre,[36] catered to the popular taste of the period for sentimental photographs. Illustrations # 2 and 3 are fine examples of this type. Both pictures show little girls feeding cute baby animals, in these two examples, a lamb and a kitten respectively. To the modern eye these photos appear posed, artificial and contrived. Sometimes these types of shots were staged for humour. Illustration # 4 is one of Sallows' most popular pictures which shows two little boys getting a drink fresh from the cow. This shot was released in a coloured form as a post card[37] and was apparently very successful. Sometimes, Sallows overcomes the limitation of this type of photograph. In illustration # 5 for example, Sallows has created a very interesting picture. In this shot, he juxtaposed an innocent looking child with the malevolent grin of a jack o'lantern. The two are balanced on either side of the photograph and the effect is somehow heightened by the uneven, tangled backdrop of corn stalks. Another type of photograph in the Sallows collection might simply be described as sight gags. These are carefully staged photographs which are a form of visible joke. For example, illustration # 6 shows a little girl covering her eyes as she watches a turkey about to be killed. The humour is very obvious[38] and the staging equally artificial. Sometimes to reinforce the humour in a photograph, Sallows would title the shot. Illustration # 7, showing a little boy having his pants mended by his mother, was for example, entitled by Sallows Reducing the Rent. Occasionally Sallows' photographs would play on the Edwardian public's interest in being titillated. Illustration # 8 shows this aspect of Sallows work for it is a shot of a woman sitting on a man's lap while she operates a dash churn. This, however, is rather tame, even by Victorian and Edwardian standards. Note how Sallows, never one to miss an opportunity, even adds a cute baby kitten lapping up cream in this picture. Another type of photograph found in Sallows' work are what might be termed pretty pictures. These, like his kids and dogs and sight gag photographs, are carefully staged shots of rural life. In illustration # 9, two pretty girls are portrayed operating a cream separator in an orchard. To Sallows' audience of the day, the incongruities in this scene would have been obvious. Cream separating was not a task to be performed wearing your best clothes, nor outdoors, if for no other reason that a cream separator would not work unless secured to a flat surface. Hence, for them, the photographs would be admired for their picturesque qualities. To the modern viewer, however, these inconsistencies are not nearly so apparent and therefore there is a danger that images such as these will be accepted as historical fact.[39] This photograph also shows the technical skill and style of Sallows. It has somewhat of a pictorial[40] quality in that it uses a soft focus, for the foreground is in sharp focus and the background slightly out of focus. This picture also shows that Sallows was probably touching up his negatives given the incredible luminescent appearance of the milk and the interior of the pan. Illustration # 10 shows many of the same features. Like the cream separator shot, this photograph is staged and appears very artificial with the woman feeding the farm flock in the orchard. Like the previous image, it was staged to take advantage of the orchard in bloom. This shot, though, does have an interesting effect. Photographed in bright sunshine the whiteness of the woman's dress is reflected by the ring of chickens and is framed by the orchard blossoms. These two photographs show some of the common features of many of the Sallows collection. In the photographs of rural Ontario it is almost always spring or summer and sunny. As a whole, they give a very appealing view of rural Ontario, far removed from the despair and poverty of the Farm Security Administration's photographs of rural life[41]or even the reality of life in rural Ontario.[42] This is not documentary photography but almost the opposite. Sallows isdeliberately trying to capture for his commercial clients a view of rural Ontario that is positive, for after all, clients like the Department of Immigration and farm periodicals were trying to attract people to Ontario 's farms. Hence Sallows' work for them had to provide the viewer with a positive image.[43] Sallows, when commenting on his own work, remarked that he always tried to take people unaware, in their natural moods or in familiar surroundings, which I find imparts natural and life- like qualities to all my studies.[44] Critics of the time also saw this quality in Sallows' work as well. One noted that there is an entire abstinence of that restraint, posing or stiffness frequently found in the photographs of persons, their pursuits or pleasures. Mr. Sallows never takes a picture or an animated scene when the persons are conscious that they are being photographed.[45] Today the opposite could be said of Sallows work, for many of his pictures look as if they were poses, even if the surroundings and the poses appear natural. For example, illustration # 11 shows two men taking a break from binding. Their positions are natural and relaxed yet the viewer shares little sense of intimacy with them. Similarly, illustrations # 12 gives the same feeling. It too is a natural shot with a young boy taking a farmer (his father ?) a drink in the field. Yet it also rings false at least partially because the man is ploughing an already well-tilled field! Several photographs in this collection do manage to avoid this artificial, posed look. In illustration # 13 a family is shown planting cabbage.[46] The little girl in the foreground is caught shyly peering up at the camera, therefore giving the photograph a natural spontaneous look that captures some of the essence of the people he is recording. Sallows' skill as a trained, professional photographer with a good eye sometimes transcends the demands of the popular taste of the time or the limitations of commercial photography. These photographs stand by themselves. Illustration # 14 for example, is a splendid view of a stump fence. Taken almost at ground level, the line of stumps, twisted and misshapen, framed against the background of the forest, seem almost to blend into the forest and at the same time echo it. Illustration # 15 also has an interesting viewpoint. The centre of the shot is filled by a man who is engaged in the process of topping turnips. Behind him, stretching to the end of the photograph, are several rows of turnips some of which are already topped and the rest not, an image that reinforces the monotony and drudgery of this particular task. In some of his photographs, Sallows reveals a real feel for landscape. In illustration # 16, three women and a man are shown pulling flax. Stooped over and straining, the viewer can identify with the exertion and effort of this task and yet at the same time it is the landscape that dominates this scene, which sweeps out beyond the workers and fills the top half of the photograph. The sharp focus and careful balancing of the four figures in the front add greatly to the shot, which resembles a Romantic landscape. The same feel for landscape can be seen in Illustration # 17. In this shot, Sallows has placed at the centre of the photograph, a team of horses being watered at a creek. Sallows contrasts the smooth texture of the creek with the rough texture of the flanking trees. The overall effect, like the previous one, is a Romantic landscape. There is no doubt that Sallows' photographs, even the artificial, posed ones, are technically very good as befits a trained professional photographer. Sometimes Sallows even produced great photographs. Most of his work, however, rarely rises above the demands of popular taste or commercial dictates; they are very much a product of these two factors. Even so, they provide an interesting record of a photographer's career at the turn of the century and offer a fascinating, if biased, view of rural Ontario at this time. Bibliography PRIMARY MATERIALS Busy Man's Magazine, May 1909. Public Archives of Canada, Sallows file Canadian Pictorial, 190610, Public Archives of Canada, Sallows file Census of Canada 1881 Goderich Signal, Goderich Ontario, 1876 - 1937 Goderich Signal-Star, Goderich, Ontario, 1975 Philadelphia Photographer, 1887, Public Archives of Canada, Sallows file St. Louis and Canadian Photographer, Feb. 1899, Public Archives of Canada, Sallows file
SECONDARY MATERIALS Carroll, J. The Farm, Toronto: Methuen. 1984 Garrett, A.S., R.R. Sallows - his - photos won acclaim far a field. Goderich SignalStar. July 17, 1975 Greenhill, R. and A. Birrel, Canadian Photography 1839-1920, Toronto : Coach House Press, 1979 Koltun, L.(ed.) Private Realms of Light, Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1984 Newhall, B: The History of Photography. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1982 Reaman, G. The History of Agriculture in Ontario. Vol. 2. Toronto: Ministry of Agriculture and Food, 1972 Sontag, S. On Photography, New York: Dell Publishing Co. Inc., 1977
ORAL HISTORY D. Kerr, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Guelph, Ontario Susan Pollack. Goderich, Ontario
PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Sallows Collection, Guelph, Ontario Public Archives of Canada, National Photographic Collection - Ottawa, Ontario Photographic Conservancy of Canada, Sallows Collection, London, Ontario
[1] D. Kerr, Head of Photographic Services, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Jan. 17, 1988 interview [2] Many individual photographs have been added to this collection over the years by various donors. [3] D. Kerr interview [4] Given that Sallows as a commercial photographer and that similar collections (50 - 75% identical) exist in other collections, it seems plausible that Sallows sold this portfolio of photographs to one of the colleges in the distant past for use in their promotional materials. This theory is consistent with the other material known about Sallows. [5] Goderich Signal - Star, July 17, 1975. This article quotes from Sallows as recorded in a 1916 interview. Unfortunately, the author of this article on Sallows does not specifically name the publication and attempts to trace it have so far proven fruitless. [6] Ibid. [7] Huron Signal, Feb. 18, 1881 [8] Census of Canada, 1881 [9] R. Greenhill and A. Birrell, Canadian Photography 1839 1920, (Toronto, 1979), Ch. 24 [10] Huron Signal, June 10, 1881, July 28, 1882 and Dec. 1 and 22, 1882. Sallows was selling pictures of Lillie Langtry in 1882 and many examples of Sallows' early studio work exist in private collections. [11] Goderich Signal, August 17, 1888 [12] B. Newhall, The History of Photography, (New York, 1982), p. 133 [13] Goderich Signal, March 29, 1889. This was probably some type of lantern show. [14] Goderich Signal, Dec. 19, 1895 [15] Huron Signal, June 13, 1884 [16] Newhall, History of Photography, Ch.9 [17] Huron Signal, April 10, 1883 [18] Philadelphia Photographer, 1887 [19] Huron Signal, Nov. 2, 1883 [20] Goderich Signal, Sept. 2, 1897 [21] Sallows uses the term commercial photography to describe his work for publication. [22] Goderich Signal - Star, June 29, 1967 [23] St. Louis and Canadian Photographer, Feb. 1899 [24] Busy Man's Magazine, (Toronto, May 1909) [25] Goderich Signal, April 23, 1903 and Dec. 10, 1903 [26] Goderich Signal Star, June 29, 1967 [27] Busy Man's Magazine, May 1909 [28] Goderich Signal Star, July 17, 1975. Sallows even hired an agent in London, England. (Goderich Signal, Nov. 5, 1908) [29] Goderich Signal, Nov. 5, 1908, May 29, 1913 [30] Ibid [31] Susan Pollack, interview. Mrs. Pollack, a lifelong resident of Huron county and a friend of Sallows, could name and identify the location of many of Sallows' photographs. [32] Goderich Signal, May 9, 1907. Sallows' studio by this time has also begun to sell photographic supplies and do processing (Oct. 31, 1909). [33] A print of Sallows' appears in Farm and Dairy, Aug. 6, 1925 [34] Goderich Signal, July 28, 1937 [35] Busy Man's Magazine, May 1909 [36] L. Koltun, Private Realms of Light, (Toronto, 1984), p. 56 [37] Many examples can be seen in private collections. [38] This photograph was released during World War I with the caption Turkey and the allies. Goderich Signal - Star, July 17, 1975 [39] see Susan Sontag, On Photography, (New York, 1977) for a good discussion of using photographs as historical evidence [40] see Greenhill, Canadian Photography, for a discussion of Canadian pictorialism. [41] see Newhall, History of Photography, Ch. 13 [42] Rural Ontario at this time was in a period of transition and plagued by problems of depopulation and low commodity prices. For further information see G. Reaman, History of Agriculture in Ontario, Vol. 2 (Toronto, 1972) [43] This is not to say that the Sallows photographs are of no use to the historian. The backgrounds, clothing, and other incidentals are of great help but extreme care must be taken when using them. [44] Goderich Signal Star, June 29, 1967 [45] Busy Man's Magazine, May 1909 [46] It is likely cabbage because little tufts of white paper were often attached to cabbage seedlings to protect the from the larvae of the Cabbage fly. J. Carroll, The Farm, (Toronto, 1984), 14 |
