Martha Langford

Martha Langford FRSC is a Canadian art historian. She is a professor of art history at Concordia University and a Canada Research Chair of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art. She helped found the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography and served as its director and chief curator from 1985 until 1994. She is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Professor Martha Langford
Born	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Academic background
Education	Nova Scotia College of Art and Design PhD., McGill University
Thesis	Suspended conversations, private photographic albums in the public collection of the McCord Museum of Canadian History (1997)
Academic work
Discipline	Art history
Institutions	Concordia University

Personal life

Langford's father Warren was a civil servant and photographer during the Cold War era.[1] In 2011, Langford and her brother John published "A Cold War Tourist and His Camera" which examined their fathers photographs.[2] Besides John, Langford also has two other siblings.[3]

Education

Langford was educated at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before obtaining her PhD from McGill University.[4] She published her thesis under the title "Suspended conversations, private photographic albums in the public collection of the McCord Museum of Canadian History."[5] In 2001, she republished her thesis as "Suspended Conversations: The Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums."[4]

Career

After working for 18 years with the National Film Board of Canada as director of the Still Photography Division, she helped found the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. From 1985 to 1994, she served as its director and chief curator.[4] In 1989, Langford was awarded the Government of Canada Merit Award.[6] She then went on to complete her doctorate and sat on the board of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal.[7] Before she was hired by Concordia University as a professor of art history in 2004[4] Langford had taught at the University of Ottawa, McGill University, and Bishop's University.[7]

In 2007, Langford published "Paper, Stone: Expressions of Memory in Contemporary Photographic Art" through McGill-Queen's University Press. The book is a study into the role of memory in contemporary photographic art.[4] Two years later, Langford worked as a curatorial consultant for the Musée du Quai Branly photographic biennale PhotoQuai 2009 and was the commissioning curator for "Preoccupations: Photographic Explorations of the Grey Nuns Mother House" for Concordia University.[6]

In 2011, Langford was appointed research chair and director of Concordia University’s Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, succeeding François-Marc Gagnon. Before obtaining this position, Langford served as editor-in-chief of the "Journal of Canadian Art History" and an advisory board member for Ciel variable magazine.[8]

In 2017, Langford published her book "Narratives Unfolding" which discussed contemporary art historical approaches and their connection to the source.[9]

In June 2018, Langford was selected as a research fellow at the Canadian Photography Institute.[10] A few months later, in September, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[11]

Inspiration

While at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Langford cited Michael Snow as an inspiration. As a result, she has published multiple papers on his work.[12] In 2014, she published "Michael Snow: Life & Work" through the Art Canada Institute which presented an overview of his life and work.[13]

Publications

The following is a list of publications:[14]

• Contemporary Canadian photography from the collection of the National Film (1984)
• Power plays: contemporary photography from Canada: Lynne Cohen, Carole Conde & Karl Beveridge, Donigan Cumming, Pierre Guimond, Miklos Legrady, Cheryl Sourkes (1989)
• Beau: a reflection on the nature of beauty in photography (1992)
• George Steeves: 1979-1993 (1993)
• Image & imagination (2005)
• Scissors, paper, stone expressions of memory in contemporary photographic art (2007)
• Narratives Unfolding (2017)

References

1. Curran, Peggy (March 4, 2011). "Cold War nostalgia? Warren Langford post-war photo album at Concordia". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
2. White, Peter (2012). "Martha Langford and John Langford, A Cold War Tourist and His Camera, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2011, 196 p" (PDF). erudit.org. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
3. "Nuclear family and nuclear war". concordia.ca. March 7, 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
4. Black, Barbra (September 13, 2007). "Photography as the art of memory". cjournal.concordia.ca. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
5. "Dissertations and theses". artcan.ca. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
6. "Martha Langford, PhD". concordia.ca. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
7. "Martha Langford". moisdelaphoto.com. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
8. Tanner-McDonald, Ann (September 28, 2011). "Jarislowsky Institute welcomes new research chair and director". concordia.ca. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
9. "Narratives Unfolding: Art History's Martha Langford Launches New Publication". concordia.ca. June 29, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
10. "Canadian Photography Institute announces 2018 research fellows". gallery.ca. June 28, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
11. Dunk, Renée (September 11, 2018). "The Royal Society of Canada honours two Concordians for their exceptional learning and intellectual accomplishments". concordia.ca. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
12. "MARTHA LANGFORD". aci-iac.ca. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
13. "Michael Snow: Life & Work by Martha Langford". concordia.ca. March 4, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
14. "au:Langford, Martha". worldcat.org. Retrieved April 20, 2019.