In the early 1950s, Karsh took an assignment from Maclean’s magazine to photograph 16 cities across Canada. St. John’s was one of them, and Bell Island is off the coast of St. John’s.
“What Maclean’s magazine really wanted were articles that would present or document the post-war economic development and cultural prosperity of the country, as well as the modernization that was taking place in these post-war years across Canada.”
We have been working with our colleagues at Library and Archives Canada, who maintain Karsh’s original materials, on a wonderful article and video about Bell Island’s coal mines from CBC News.
Late in his career, Karsh selected 500 of his most meaningful photos. He included this one of William ‘Billy’ Parsons.