First Son: Portraits By C.d. Hoy

Curated by: Faith Moosang

An extraordinary collection of photographs by Chow Dong Hoy (1883 – 1973), a Chinese-Canadian photographer working in British Columbia’s Cariboo. His startling, evocative portraits of First Nations, Chinese, and Caucasian people in small-town British Columbia, taken between 1909 and 1920, form an important historical and cultural document about the roots of “otherness” in Canada. Hoy’s photographic aesthetic was in the portrait, and was driven by the spirit of invention. He was not a simple portraitist: his work was deliberate and informed, often including elaborate and precisely-positioned backgrounds. Taken as a collection, these moving and exquisite images depict a multiracial community frozen in time, and are as rich, varied and vital as the people they portray.

Assistance from the Barkerville Historic Town. Supported by the British Columbia Heritage Trust, Barkerville Historic Town and The Friends of Barkerville, The Hamber Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Presentation House Gallery and Arsenal Pulp Press, co-published a book, with text by Faith Moosang and an introduction by Paul Yee.