Lives and Landscapes
A Photographic Memoir of Outport Newfoundland and Labrador, 1949-1963
Description
Interested in studying early human activity in the area he came to be equally fascinated with life in outport communities. During the summers of 1949-50 and 1961-63, he explored the coast, travelling from one isolated outport village to the next, initially by open boat and later on rudimentary roads, vividly capturing everyday life in his journals and through his extensive Kodachrome slides. In her introduction Priscilla Renouf places Harp's story of rural northern Newfoundland in historical and anthropological context. She notes that there are economic and cultural continuities from prehistoric times to the present and shows that the fundamental structure of outport life based on fishing and hunting remains today.
Reviews
"This book is a delight, and can be appreciated on several levels. It gives a brief course on Northern Peninsula prehistory and on the years when the area was a new part of Canada. Early peoples and mid-twentieth-century people lived on the same land. The
"Visually stunning and elegantly written narrative … Harp has transcended the role of scholar and emerged as photographer and storyteller. This book is worthy of shelf-sharing with other Newfoundland classics. It is easy to read, has no jargon, and is highly recommended as a resource book for the general public and academics alike." Latonia Hartery, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary
"A fine observer's experiences and a wonderful snapshot of time and place that combines local history, geography, archaeology, and photography into a fascinating sketch of a transitional period of northwestern Newfoundland history. Harp's descriptions of