Johan Helders

Helders, Johan (John) Anton Joseph

Johan (John) Anton Joseph Helders, internationally acclaimed amateur pictorial photographer (b at Rhenen, Netherlands 3 May 1888; d at Homestead, Fla 4 Feb 1956). Helders arrived in Canada from the Dutch East Indies in 1924, first settling in Vancouver, where his interest in photography was nurtured by John VANDERPANT. Two years later, Helders became maître d'hôtel of the Château Laurier, Ottawa. For the next decade, he was one of Canada's leading fine-art photographers. His prints won awards at salons all over the world and were published in the leading photographic periodicals. A fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, he served as director for Canada of the Photographic Society of America. Helders's salon photography diminished after he moved back to Vancouver in 1939.