Photography of Courtney Milne on display at the University of Saskatchewan

Library at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon is holding a special presentation of the exhibition “A World Closely Observed: The Photography of Courtney Milne”. Opening reception and exhibition viewing will take place in the Link Gallery (1st floor of the Murray Library) on Thursday, October 30, 2014 from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. The exhibition will be on display until December 31, 2014.

The gallery exhibition includes large prints of Milne’s images, copies of publications and books featuring his photography, display of awards such as the posthumous Saskatchewan Order of Merit, family photographs and more. Additional images will be displayed through a rotating slide show on a large screen in the gallery. The exhibition highlights various points in Milne’s career, and quotations from Milne and others provide insight into his approach to photography and his changing view of the world.

Milne`s personal collection of more than 550,000 images, 2,000 prints, textual records, audio and visual media and his reference library was donated to the University of Saskatchewan in 2013. A demonstration of the website featuring thousands of Milne`s photographs will follow the opening reception. You can also pick up your own copy of the exhibition catalogue.

Pond reflection – homage to Courtney Milne’s Pool of Possibilities project

Courtney Milne was one of Canada’s most recognized professional photographers, renowned worldwide for his landscape and nature images. He died in 2010 at the age of 66 following a prolonged battle with cancer. A prolific photographer and author or co-author of more than 180 illustrated magazine articles and several books, he explored sacred sites and landscapes around the globe. His best-selling 1991 book, The Sacred Earth, features a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Milne was awarded the Gold Medal for Distinction in Canadian Photography by the National Association for Photographic Art (1993), was selected to the 1995 jury for the International Photography Competition sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program, in Tokyo, Japan, where he presented The Sacred Earth Concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and was nominated for the 2004 prestigious Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Milne was granted an honorary doctor of laws from the University of Regina in 2005. (source: Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan).

Pond reflection. Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan

Update: U of Sask. Library web site with the archive of Milne’s images can be accessed at www.library.usask.ca/courtneymilne

There is also an exhibition catalogue with essays by David Bindle and Cheryl Avery. You can get a copy though Blurb books as softcover (Cdn $42.14) or hardcover (Cdn $53.61)